Sunday 2 March 2014

The kiss of death?

A couple of weeks ago GM David Smerdon dropped in to Street Chess in Canberra. He was in town to attend a wedding, and was having a holiday before returning to his PhD studies in The Netherlands. It must have been a reasonably short holiday as today he is playing in the final round of the 6th Batavia Chess Tournament, in Amsterdam.
Going into the final round he holds a half point lead over IM Twan Burg, and they are the only 2 players who can win the event. Interestingly, both players are paired against the back markers in the 10 player Round Robin, if ever IM's and GM's can be called back markers.
As I type this I have been watching the last round action on the tournament website, and was hoping to see a result before I posted this entry. However the game is still going (and I am not sure who is better), so I hope I haven't put the 'kiss of death' on David by publishing too early!

**Update** Looks like I pulled a double "kiss of death", with not only Smerdon losing, but Burg losing as well. As a result Smerdon still wins the event with 6/9, Burg on 5.5, and everyone else finishing closer to the top.

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