2013 Australian Open - Ikeda and Khenkin lead

At the halfway point of the 2013 Australian Open, FM Junta Ikeda and GM Igor Khenkin share the lead with 5.5/6. In round 5 ther drew a marathon 100 move game, and have won all their other games. Trailing by half a point is a group of 4 players, GM Zong Yuan Zhao, IM Max Illingworth, FM Bobby Cheng and WGM Irine Sukandar.
In todays round Ikeda defeated IM George Xie after finding a neat middlegame tactic. Khenkin did the same against IM Andrew Brown, when Brown overlooked a little combination which won a pawn. Zhao and Cheng had some interesting moments, before they agreed to a draw.
Tomorrow sees the all GM clash of Khenkin v Zhao on board 1, while Illingworth and Ikeda play on the second board.


Brown,Andrew (2261) - Ly,Moulthun (2417) [A00]
Australian Open (5.3), 06.01.2013

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 a6 5. e3 b5 6. b3 Bg4 7. Be2 e6 8. h3 Bxf3 9. Bxf3 Bb4 10. Bd2 Nbd7 11. O-O O-O 12. Nxd5 Nxd5 13. cxd5 Bxd2 14. dxc6 Qa5 15. cxd7 Ra7 16. a3 Bc3 17. b4 Qb6 18. Rc1 Bb2 19. Rc6 1-0