Tom Stonehouse and I have been friends for about 50 years. Thus the big news of the day was that he won against the 2300+ young Chinese player – about 500 points difference in rating. I am sure that is not the biggest upset ever, but it is possibly the most surprising. Ke Mu rather drifted and then made a gross blunder.
The middle game between Qun Ma and Jens Kipper was a fascinating battle.
Why didn’t Glenn Flear play 21 Re4 in order to pursue his kingside attack? Mark Hebden rather drifted in the complex endgame against Glenn. But, perhaps to maintain a material balance, Mark had to allow his knight to become off-side. The final combination was a classic interference pattern. But Glenn could have won without that flourish by playing 40 Re7+ Kf8 41 Nh7+ Kg8 42 d7.
Stephen Gordon was pressing for much of the game, but then Cristina took the fight to the young Englishman. It ended up a worthy draw.
Danny Gormally played very precisely to take control against Peter Sowray.