Heading into the 6th round, we had four players tied at the top of the table with 4.5 points out of 5. They played individually in the 5th round with Hovhannisyan playing white against Firouzja and Lupulescu with white against Movsesian
Hovhannisyan and Firouzja settled on a draw relatively early after a Najdorf fizzled out into a heavy piece endgame with little promise for either side. At this the board 4 encounter between Erwin l’Ami and Jorden van Foreest had already been agreed drawn. Incredibly, these two draws were half the amount of draws in the whole round on the first 38 boards!
The encounter between Lupulescu and Movsesian proved exciting as Lupulescu managed to grab a pawn from the Armenian and from there his advantage steadily grew until the kingside defences were non-existent for Sergei.
Maxime Lagarde went somewhat crazy against Gawain Jones on the 3rd board in a very insane game!
These results put Lupulescu at the top of the table while Firouzja, Jones, Hovhannisyan and somewhat surprisingly David Eggleston follow with 5 out 6.
Results and standings.
