2013 Sydney International Chess Festival - Day 2

The 2013 Sydney International Open seems to be following a similar path the the just completed 2013 Doeberl Cup Premier. Once again Indian GM SP Sethuraman has taken the lead starting the tournament with 4 wins from 4 games. He is being closely followed by GM's Zhao, Vajda, Chao and Stocek, all on 3.5.
Unlike the Doeberl there is no bonus prizes for 'fighting chess', so a couple of the GM's took the opportunity to have some extra rest by agreeing to quick draws. However this only occurred in a few games, with the rest of the games being full blooded affairs.
Of the Australian players IM Gary Lane, IM Stephen Solomon, FM Igor Bjelobrk and FM Bobby Cheng are all on 3 points, while 12 year old Anton Smirnov continued his recent run of good firm, drawing with GM's Herbala and Horvath in successive rounds. Lane was unlucky in his game against Sethuraman, losing on time while in a better position.
In the Challengers tournament Joseph Nguyen leads with 4/4, followed by Mat-Arif Zulkifli and Rewais Sarwat on 3.5.


Lane,Gary - Sethuraman,SP [B08]
Sydney International Open (3), 04.04.2013