The leading group in the 2019 NSW Open has been reduced to 6 players after round 3. While the top 4 seeds all won their games, IM Gary Lane drew against Fred Litchfield, while FM Donato Malari scored an upset win over IM Andro Wagdy on board 6. The fourth round sees IM Stanislav Smetankin against IM Igor Bjelobrk, WGM Jilin Zhang against GM Daniel Fernandez and IM Junta Ikeda against FM Donato Mallari.
Apart from the upset results, there were a couple of strange finishes on the lower boards. FM Kevin O'Chee allowed his opponent to escape with a draw, after swapping rooks and allowing a bishop and wrong coloured rook pawn ending. In the Minor, there was great amusement when one player left a piece en-pris, only to have his opponent offer a draw (rather than capture it!).
While Round 5 (the evening round) normally sees a large number of requests for half point byes, it looks as though almost all of the leading players will be on deck. You can follow the top 6 boards at chess24.com, while the tournament results are available at chess-results.com
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