Tuesday, 3 December 2024

A different SIO

 Running alongside the 2024 World Championship match is the 2024 Singapore International Open (SIO). Taking advantage of the interest generated by the WCC, the SIO has attracted over 500 players across both sections. The top section is restricted to players over 1800, and used accelerated pairings to improve the norm chances of the players in the top half.

Today is the 2nd double round day of the tournament, with 6 games being played so far, and the 7th in progress as I type this. Almost 40 Australian players are playing across both events, with at least 3 Canberra players among that group.

One of the players in the lead of the Open is GM Zong Yuan Zhao. He is on 5/6, with 4 wins and 2 draws. In today's morning round he beat 14th seed GM Rinat Jumbayev in a game that swung back and forth. He is now on board 3 against 25th seed IM Jan Klimkowski.

Other Australians close to lead include IM James Morris, FM Albert Winkelman, and CM Ben Leong (all on 4/6). Winkelman is quite close to an IM norm based on his current results, although he has attributed this result to his ability in defending a run of bad positions. If he wins his game today, then he will probably only need 1/2 for a norm from this event.


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