2013 O2C Doeberl Cup - Days 3&4

The action continued on days 3&4 of the 2013 O2C Doeberl Cup. Indian GM SP Sethuraman continued his good form from the first 2 days, scoring another 2.5 points from the next 3 rounds. But his run was halted in Round 8 when top seed GM Li Chao was able to convert a knight a pawn ending, joining him on 6.5 points. This also allowed a number of other players to get closer to the lead, with GM's Vajda, Zhao, Stocek and Van Wely all on 6 points. In the final round Zong Yuan Zhao plays Li Chao and Sethuraman plays Loek Van Wely, meaning that 7 or 7.5 is going to be the winning score.
Further down the field a couple of players are playing for title norms. Luke Li needs to beat IM Somak Palit for an IM norm, while Mongolian WFM Sengeravdan Otgonjargal is playing for a number of norms, depending upon the result of her final game against GM Darryl Johansen.
In the Major (Under 2000), Dimitry Partsi and Andrew Saint are on the top board, while Ilija Illic plays Jeremy Reading on board 2. Saint (5.5/6) has a half point lead over the other 3. Aelfric Gardiner-Garden leads the Minor (Under 1600) with 5.5/6. In second place are David Cannon and Kasish Christian. Gardiner-Garden plays Christian on the top board in round 7.
The Under 1200 event has already been decided, with Ziqi Yuan winning his final round game over Mark Glanville to finish on 5.5/6. Glanville finished equal 2nd with Walter Wolffs.
The Doeberl Cup Blitz was held after the completion of Saturday's play, with 82 players taking part. 9 rounds were not enough to split FM Junta Ikeda and GM RR Laxman, as they drew with each other in round 4, but beat every other opponent. They finished on 8.5, 1.5 points ahead of Dutch FM Joost Van Ruitenburg.
The final round in the Premier, Major and Minor all start at 9:30 am tomorrow, and you can follow the action from the top 4 boards of the Premier, as well as the top Major and Minor boards, on the tournament website.