2016 ACT Championship - Day 3

At the end f the first half of the 2016 ACT Championship, IM Junta Ikeda has taken a half point lead over IM Andrew Brown and Fred Litchfield. Ikeda, who had drawn his round 2 game against Victor Braguine, overtook Brown after winning their round 5 game. Litchfield kept pace with the leaders with wins over defending champion Adrian De Noskowski and Wenlin Yin.
There is a larger group of players on 3.5, including Dillon Hathiramani and Josh Walker, who are both performing above their initial seedings. Of the younger players Benjamin Gianquitto has scored a couple of good wins, and James Sheehan and Elliot are also doing well.
With the Ikeda v Brown pairing out of the way, the next four rounds will see them try and hold off the rest of the field. Fred Litchfield is well placed, although he is yet to play the 'big two', while Andrey Bliznyuk is always a dangerous opponent.
Full results and game can be found at chess-results.com. The final 4 rounds will be held next weekend (20-21 February)


Ikeda,Junta (2393) - Brown,Andrew (2181)
2016 ACT Championship Canberra (5.1), 14.02.2016

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 g6 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. d3 Bg7 6. h3 Nf6 7. Nc3 Nd7 8. Be3 e5 9. Qd2 h6 10. O-O Qe7 11. Nh2 b6 12. a3 a5 13. f4 exf4 14. Bxf4 Ne5 15. Rae1 Be6 16. Kh1 Rd8 17. Qe3 g5 18. Qg3 Qf6 19. Bc1 Qe7 20. Ne2 O-O 21. Qe3 f5 22. exf5 Bxf5 23. Bd2 Bg6 24. Bc3 Qd6 25. Rxf8+ Rxf8 26. Ng3 Re8 27. Ne4 Qd5 28. Qf2 Rf8 29. Qg3 Rf4 30. Nxg5 Rf5 31. Ngf3 Nxf3 32. Qxg6 Re5 33. Nxf3 1-0