On top board in round five of the Bangkok Chess Club Open Championships held at the Regent Cha-Am Beach Resort from 13-21 April 2018, Germany’s Jan Gustafsson had an easy draw with the black pieces against Argentine’s Diego Flores who only a week earlier had won the Dubai Open Chess Championships.
Top seeded Armenian Hrant Melkumyan showed his class with his win over Argentine Leandro Krysa to join Gustafsson and Flores on 4.5/5, as did Australia’s Anton Smirnov, Vietnam’s Tran Tuan Minh, India’s Deepan Chakkravarthy J. and Indonesia’s Novendra Priasmoro after wins against highly regarded young International Masters.
Smirnov was simply too strong for Indonesia’s Irene Sukandar, Tran very convincing against young talented countryman Nguyen Anh Khoi, while Deepan simply crushed Tran Ming Trang and the lone IM in the leader group, Novendra, ended the run of Mongolian WGM Enthuul Altan-Ulzii.
Lurking behind on 4/5 and very much all in contention, are Krysa, Australia’s Moulthon Ly, India’s Gukesh D, Vatsal Singhania, Panda Sambit and Manish Anto Christiano F, China’s Nie Xinyang, Peng Xiongjian and Zhu Yi, Singapore’s Kevin Goh Wei Ming and Emmanuelle Hng, USA’s Timur Gareyev, and the Philippines’ Pascua Haridas.