BCC Open round 7: top six share the spoils as Jacobson, Van Wely and Gorshtein close in.

Today’s pre-round announcement echoed like music to the ears of all competitors present, as a purse of 500,000 baht (~15,500 USD) was confirmed by tournament director Kai Tuorila. Strangely enough, the news seemed to particularly stimulate contestants at the lower boards, most of whom kept at it well into the 6th hour of play in an otherwise largely empty ballroom.

On board two, the game between Ghosh Aronyak and Surya Ganguly ended peacefully after just seven moves, thereby ensuring that the pair would not be late for Nigel Short’s evening lecture on his book “Winning!”. Doubtlessly impressed by such foresight, GMs Visakh and Stremavicius followed suit, drawing their game after less than 90 minutes. GM Short then drew on board 1 with the tournament leader, IM Dau, in a longer but evenly balanced game.

Three grandmasters capitalised on these results to rejoin the chasing pack. Brendan Jacobson and Loek Van Wely both punished ill-advised pawn advances by their IM opponents – 25…b5 by Dmytro Davydenko in the first case, 13…f5 by Adika Sadhvik in the second. Meanwhile, on board 6 Ido Gorshtein gradually built up pressure against Dinghra Aaditya’s Queenside to force a decision in the endgame.

Aaditya, Dhingra (2418) – Gorshtein, Ido (2549)

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.h4 h5 5.Bd3 Qd7 6.Nc3 Bxd3 7.Qxd3 c5 8.dxc5 e6 9.Be3 Na6 10.Nf3 Nxc5 11.Qe2 a6 12.Rh3 Qc7 13.O-O-O Ne7 14.Nd4 Nc6 15.f4 g6 16.Kb1 Be7 17.Nb3 Nxb3 18.axb3 b5 19.Bf2 Qb7 20.Qf1 Kf8 21.Qd3 Nb4 22.Qe2 Rc8 23.Rd2 Kg7 24.g4 Kf8 25.f5 hxg4 26.Qxg4 gxf5 27.Qf4 Qc7 28.h5 Nc6 29.Bg3 d4 30.Ne2 Nb4 31.Qxd4

[ Diagr]Here, White’s best chance to hold was 31.c3. Now Black crashes through…

31… Qa5 32.Nc1 Rxc2 33.Rxc2 Qa1+ 34.Kxa1 Nxc2+ 35.Ka2 Nxd4 36.Nd3 Bg5 37.b4 Kg7 38.Bf2 Nc6 39.Kb3 Kh6 40.Nc5 Rd8 41.Nxa6 Nxe5 42.Nc7 Nd3 43.Ba7 Nf4 44.Rf3 e5 45.Nxb5 Kxh5 46.Nc3 Rd7 47.Bb8 f6 48.b5 Ne6 49.Rf1 e4 50.b6 e3 51.Kc4 f4 52.Kb5 f3 53.Bc7 e2 54.Rh1 Kg6 55.b7 Nxc7+ 56.Kc6 Rd8 57.Kxc7 Re8 58.Nd5 f2

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On the home front, IM Prin Laohawirapap’s win today against Alekhya Mukhopadhay will provide him with the opportunity to reappear at the higher boards during the tournament’s final stretch.