2014 ANU Masters Week 6

FM Junta Ikeda has closed the gap on IM Andrew Brown, after beating him in Round 6 of the 2014 ANU Masters. The game was finely balanced for quite a while, but a couple of misteps towards the end allowed Ikeda to reach a winning rook and pawn ending. The win by Ikeda puts him half a point behind Brown, but Ikeda still has two extra games to play.
At the other end of the table Alana Chibnall scored her first win of the tournament, beating fellow tail ender Adrian De Noskowski. De Noskowski played the Poisoned Pawn Najdorf, which seemed to surprise Chibnall, and she decided to defend the b pawn, rather than gambit it. An exhange sacrifice for attacking chances did not seem sufficient until De Noskowski blundered, and Chibnall scored the point. Wenlin Yin was on the defensive for a lot of the game against Andrey Bliznyuk. With extra space on the kingside Blinzyuk found an inventive rook sacrifice, but at best, this line was probably only enough for a draw. However he missed a perpetual and found himself down material, soon ending up in a lost position. Fred Litchfield and Miles Patterson played a fairly peaceful draw, where a single open file did  not offer  many chances for either side.
So with 1 round (and a couple of catch up games) to play, IM Andrew Brown holds a half point lead over FM Junta Ikeda. Further back are Fred Litchfield and Wenlin Yin who share third place on 3.5/6.


Ikeda,Junta (2338) - Brown,Andrew (2245)
2014 ANU Masters Canberra AUS (6.4), 19.03.2014