Its rest day for the event and after 5 rounds over 3 days, 2 players representing KLCA put up a decent if not impeccable performance.
Leading the charge in the Open event with a 100% record i.e. 5 Wins in 5 Rounds is 3rd seeded Zaidan Zulkipli. After a "smoking" 3hours plus game against K-Pop Korean, he basically sparred with the national team of Taiwan from Rounds 2 to 5. His real test will however come in the second half of the event starting with Round 6 tomorrow where he plays black against 2nd seeded Koji Noguchi of Japan. If he can successfully fend of the Samurai attack from the Land of the Rising Sun, I expect him to play against other dragons in the form of the top seed FM from the Korean Federation and also youngster DW from China.
( Zaidan's "Smoking" Round 1 encounter against 17th seeded Korea's Chon, over 3 hours )
Shreyes Subramaniam is joint 2nd on tie-break with 3.5 points after a surprising loss in Round 5 to the current half-way point leader from Macau. He has to win the next 4 rounds to have a shot at the title. Barring a slump in performance, he should be amongst the Top 5 prize winners come Friday.
As for the cHEss pIRATE Amir Faiz, well what can I say - I'd hoped that since he'll be competing in the U16 category, he will at least get a point and not repeat his dismal performance in this year's KL Open. Lo and behold, wonders do exist in chess and he'd achieved the 1 point target on the second day of competition. Presently, he's joint 13th and if he plays against another 2 FIDE-rated players in he remaining 4 rounds he should be able to get a FIDE rating for the classical game by the time he sets foot again in Taiwan next month for the 10th Asian Schools Chess Championship in Taichung.
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