A 2 horse race

I popped in to the Australian Championships today to catch an hour or so of the action. I had a quick chat with GM Gawain Jones who said he hoped that todays results would go his way, allowing him to catch up. Sadly for Gawain nothing went right for him, with the 2 leaders winning, and he losing his own game against Stephen Solomon.
This leaves GM Zong Yuan Zhao in front on 6.5/7, with IM George Xie on 6. A full point back in third place is Junta Ikeda, and then FM Vladimir Smirnov and IM Stephen Solomon on 4.5. The big pairing for tomorrow, in terms of title norms and tournament position, is Ikeda v Xie. A win for either player would certainly mean a norm (IM for Ikeda, GM for Xie) and allow them to keep touch with Zhao.

Xie,George - Johansen,Darryl [A46]
Australian Championship, 10.01.2010

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bg5 h6 4.Bh4 d6 5.Nbd2 g5 6.Bg3 Nh5 7.e4 Bg7 8.c3 Nc6 9.Bd3 Nxg3 10.hxg3 Qe7 11.Qb3 a6 12.0-0-0 b5 13.d5 Ne5 14.Nxe5 Bxe5 15.Kb1 Bd7 16.Rdf1 c5 17.dxc6 Bxc6 18.f4 Bg7 19.Nf3 Qb7 20.Qc2 gxf4 21.gxf4 (D)
21. ... Ke7 22.Nd4 Rac8 23.f5 Bxd4 24.cxd4 e5 25.dxe5 dxe5 26.Qc5+ Kd7 27.Rd1 f6 28.Bxb5+ Kc7 29.Bxc6 1-0