Todays’ single round in the Masters was played this afternoon. After yesterday’s double round we imagine this will have been something of a relief to most, a chance to rest and recharge batteries, although perhaps some players relish the intensity of two games a day! The hall was however far from empty, as the Con Power participants played their fourth round this morning.
In the Masters young Chinese star Haowen Xue overcame French IM Mahel Boyer after a sea of tactics left an extra piece for the talented junior. On the next board GM Alexander Kovchan played powerfully to end the winning start of Iceland’s David Kolka.
IM Mads Vestby-Ellingsen is having a fabulous tournament. Today he beat fellow Scandinavian IM Jung Min Seo. The game looked level but a single error from the Swede allowed Mads to pounce, the win moving him up to 3,5/4 and a tie with Haowen and Kovchan for 1st.
GM Pengxiang Zhang gradually outplayed IM Arthur Lucas in an instructive endgame. The Golding brothers Alex and James shared the same fate, the former blundering a piece after a long and broadly even struggle with Greece’s Pavlos Bozinakis, while James played over-aggressively against Tim Grutter and could not justify his two-pawn deficit.
In a pure rook v bishop ending Moldovan WFM Valentina Verbin tested Nayan Rastogi for 110 moves before acquiescing to a draw. We wonder if any game here will last longer!
Only one player has won their first four games in the Congress and that is Paul Jackson, competing in the Con Power under-1750 section. Paul, who plays for Coulsdon chess club, won his fourth round game against Lawrence Rhodes who is from Bexhill, a few miles along the coast from Hastings and whose club has many members playing here.
Photograph by Anniken Vestby