The tournament has really become interesting as 4 of the FM's moved on 4 out of 6, and if any of them has a good run in, we could have an IM norm from this tournament. Once again, the main room of the Box Hill Chess Club was being used for other purposes, so we were relegated to the back room without the DGT boards. David Hacche was present helping Trevor Stanning with the running of the tournament in the absense of Leonid Sandler, but things are running very smoothly in this event.
Round 6 Pairings and Results:
Solomon-Steadman Draw
Cheng-Teichmann 1-0
Illingworth-Rujevic 1-0
Morris-Gorka 1-0
Smirnov-Levi 1-0
Mike Steadman nearly pulled off a big upset, but couldn't convert from an exchange up against Stephen Solomon. Bobby Cheng built up a very promising attack against Erik Teichmann and finished the game in fine combinative style. This might be the best game of the tournament so far. Rujevic was sloppy against Max Illingworth who is finishing off games clinically in this tournament. Vladimir Smirnov won against a terribly out of form Eddy Levi.
In my game, James Morris took advantage of some slack play by me and converted his advantage very nicely. The game started with a Hedgehog and I successfully got d5 in which looked to equalise. However, I then didn't find the right continuation, allowing James to take the initiative and gain the 2 bishops. Soon after I tried to create some perpetual chances, but gave away material which James took, and he avoided any drawing tricks. All in all, a nice performance from the young IM.
This leaves the standings as follows:
5. Solomon
4. Cheng, Teichmann, Illingworth, Smirnov
3. Morris
2. Gorka, Rujevic, Steadman
0. Levi
Stephen Solomon retains his lead, while the FM's pack in behind him. Any player on 4 points needs 2.5 from their remaining 3 games for an IM norm. Morris moves back to half points, after a very tough start to the tournament, and the rest of us are struggling to hang on.
The move that I really didn't like was 22..Qd7. I think after 22..Qd6 black is fine.
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