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