MCC Open Round 5 live

There were 2 byes taken for the 6th round and one of them was by our DGT expert Frank Lekkas. As a result we have no DGT transmission tonight which is a disappointment as our 2 IM's face off on board 1. I will try to keep things up to date as they happen. First game to finish was the Tan-Palma game, where white knew his Sicilian better than his opponent.

2 hours into the games:

The MCC welcomes Thai Ly back into the club after a holiday in Europe (lucky devil!). And a walk round the boards gives us interesting sights.
The top board game has Mirko down to 30 minutes and a pawn down:

Mirko is deep in thought as to how best to proceed here.

The rest of the games in the top room are still complicated, though Ari Dale has a rather precarious looking king. Karl Zelesco has some pressure against Alex Kaplan who is again proving a difficult man to beat.Shane Lawson is a pawn down as is Charlotte Dilnutt. In the battle of the elder statesmen John Dowling is down to 30 minutes, but the game with Richard Voon is very tense. Kovacevic has a protected passed pawn that guarantees him an edge, and Endre Simon looks on the verge of victory int he following endgame.

"All rook endgames are drawn", but James Brennan as black is probably wondering how this can be?

Well it looks like it will be a good week for studying minor piece endgames:

 Gary Bekker as white has less than 10 minutes but has played excellently against higher rated Jim Papadinis.

 Paul Kovacevic still has his protected passed pawn on e4, but Abdullah Durani has a king side pawn majority.

Richard McCart and Malcolm Pyke show why they are on board 4 in the back room, as both are able to play with their minor pieces in the worst possible positions!

A happy teenager! James Morris is chewing a toothpick to aid concentration against Mirko Rujevic who also regularly chews toothpicks!

Quote of the day! "I lost....I 'accidentally' blundered my queen!" though I'm not saying who said it :)

Some results are coming and another game finishes in the back room. Malcolm Pyke won his game against Richard McCart

A last comment before goodnight. James Morris has won on the top board. David Beaumont scored the upset of the night beating Eddy Levi, quite convincingly. The remaining game in the back room is between Dragicevic and Garner where David as black is a pawn up in a knight ending with 3 versus 2 on the same side. Ari Dale gains another scalp winning against Kerry Stead, after it looked very much as if Kerry was weaving mating nets around Ari's king. But it was not to be and the material that Kerry had given counted in the end.

The only other game still going is the Voon-Dowling game where they are trying to make more moves than their combined ages. We're in for a long night!

Full results and standings can be viewed on the MCC website.