The young Brit David Howell was to stop the Azerbaijani Grandmaster Safarli to share the lead with Chao Li  who won against Ante Brkic are now leading with 4.5 with rating performances of 2831 and 2843 respectively. Le Quang and Chao Li will face each other in round 6 on board 1 while 15-year-old prodigy girl Yifan Hou will take on David Howell.

Tatev Abrahamyan draw with the top seed Harika Dronavalli to defend her half point while all the other top boards were drawn which did not change the contest for the top spots. Muzychuk to face Abrahamyan while the other four players with 4 points: Harika vs. Dauletova; Nakhbayeva vs.Gomes facing each other on Round 6.

Full-report below.

David Howell , who got a nice position against Eltaj Safarli right after the opening but not decisive. After the complications on the queen side, white emerged two pawns which enabled white to win comfortably and taking over the leading spot from his opponent.

Chao Li produced a nice game with skillful maneuvering and managed to win against Ante Brkic to join Howell's lead.

The other two Chinese players facing each other on the third board, Lin Chen and Yifan Hou drew after a balanced fight. White launched a sharp attack in a Benoni-type of position with the traditional pawn storm in the center in the game between Rodshtein-Leon Hoyos. The sharp fight resolved into an endgame with a pair of rooks and opposite colored bishops and the sides agreed to a draw since there was not much to play for after that.

In this position, Baramidze continued with 15.cd5 ed5 16.Bd4 Ne5 17.f4 Nc4 18.Qd3 de4 19.Qc4 Rc8 20.Bg7 Rc4 21.Bc4 after which white had two pieces and one rook against the queen with a winning position against Boros.

David Kalashian


Chao and Lin chatting before the game



Dariusz Swiercz from Poland



Silent Day in World Junior Girls Championship

On the top boards of World Junior Girls Chess Championship all of the top five boards ended as a draw. The first of those was the game between Abrahamyan and Harika while the smoke did not seem to die away entirely.



In the game between Gomes and Muzychuk, the latter seemed to be pressing after giving a pawn away until white managed to neutralize the compensation and entered an endgame with opposite-colored bishops, pair of rooks and queens. After that, the game ended as a draw.

Dauletova-Hoolt was the most fighting game of the round. Most of the game Hoolt had the ropes but Hoolt erred in a winning rook endgame and Dauletova was able to save the game. The game between Nikolova and Mikadze lasted for ages finally which ended as a draw.

Kübra Öztürk, after a dubious play with having an isolated pawn in the ending gained the upper hand in a typical good knight-bad bishop endgame thanks to the inaccuracy on her opponent's part. However, she did not manage to win and the game ended as a draw.

An interesting battle was between WIM Betül Cemre Yıldız and WIM Katerina Nemcova who took the third and second place in World Youth Championship Under 18 respectively last year in Kemer, Turkey. In the Scotch, both players came to an ending where black had given two minor pieces for a rook and two pawns. It was en exciting game until the end, where the balance did not change but in the end, displeasing the home side fans watching the Turkish star (her surname literally means star) blundered in the endgame with Ne6 and Nemcova, one of the rising stars who did not start well in the tournament scored a crucial victory which enabled her to face Nikolova on board three in round 6.