The playing hall
The penultimate round of the International Open Cappelle La Grande is in progress. The players that arrived as joint leaders have already drawn their games and will see how it gets crowded at the top.
Sanan Sjugirov played with white against Sergey Fedorchuk. Sjugirov played the Catalan and looked for the initiative on the queenside. Fedorchuk had to start defending deep in his own camp. The Russian missed a very good chance to increase his advantage on move 25. Then, suddenly, the players agreed to a draw, probably to avoid some potential blunders that could happen in the time trouble.
The other leader Sergei Fedorov played with black against a member of the chasing pack, second seed Tigran Gharamian. Fedorov chose the King’s Indian Defense and the game followed the regular paths of this opening. However, when there was a lot of play in the position, the players agreed to a draw – just like in the game of the first table, it took them 26 moves to sign the peace treaty.
