Mustafa Yilmaz is the sole leader on 4 out of 4 after defeating Indian GM Suri Vaibhav on the black side of a Najdorf. Meanwhile, Elshan Moradiabadi the only other player with a full house after three rounds had the tough task of handling the black pieces vs the top seeded Richard Rapport. Moradiabadi seemed to have no problems whatsoever and a rather quick draw was agreed in an opposite bishops endgame.
Plenty of eyes were however guled to board 3 where local legend Johann Hjartarson displayed some old magic in dispatching number two seed Pavel Eljanov. Hjartarson had the black pieces to boot and those familar with Eljanov know it’s quite hard to beat him with the black pieces! Johann got in some tricky preparation against the Bayonet attack and everything went his way in this game which looked very smooth from the veteran grandmaster.
Another upset came flying in on board 5 where the young and talented NIhal Sarin managed to win with the white pieces against the Egyptian form World Junior Champion, Ahmed Adly.
Ravia Haria continued his strong tournament winning with the black pieces again against a strong grandmaster, Sergei Grigoriants. Ravi looks on course for a GM norm after his strong start. WGM Evgeniya Doluhanova also upset young Benjamin Gledura from Hungray.
On friday the 9th there is a day of in the tournament but most players will participate in the European Fischer Random Cup, fittingly on the 9th of March, the 75 birthday of Bobby Fischer.
5th round action will continue on Saturday at 13:00 local time.
