With five rounds gone at the 2008 North American Open, GM Georgi Kacheishvili still leads the way by himself with 4½/5. A very quick 16 move, 5th round draw with his fellow countryman, GM Zviad Izoria, ensured that they both had an early night while the rest of the field battled it out to put themselves into a position to fight for the top spot on the final day.
Just a half-point behind Kacheishvili is a group of 10 players ranging from GM Yury Shulman down to Dominican Luis Belliard. Belliard upset the odds in the last round beating out IM Robert Hess who had a miserable Sunday after losing to IM Sam Shankland earlier in the day. As for Shankland, he wrapped up a draw against GM Jaan Ehlvest to ensure they both remain in the group of ten.
Out of the ten players on 4/5 are seven GMs and also young Michael Lee. Lee notched his first ever win against a GM earlier in the day when he beat GM Julio Becerra and in round 5 he scored himself another half-point, also against GM opposition in GM Melikset Khachiyan. One hopes the young Seattle Slugger will be able to keep up the great work although my guess is that he is in for another tough days work!
GM Varuzhan Akobian has managed to fight his way from his two draw start as he has won his last three games in a row and GM Slavko Cicak is also back in the hunt after beating FM Eric Hansen. Rounding out the list is GMs Rogelio Antonio Jr and Zviad Izoria.
Shulman’s win over strong IM Enrico Sevillano was exciting. In the following position Shulman finds the only saving grace.
Position after 16…e5
17.Rxh7!! (17…Nxh7? 18.Qg6+ Kd7 19.Be6+ Kc6 20.Qe4+ Kxc5 21.Qxe5+) Rxh7 18.Qg6+ Kd7 19.0-0-0 exf4 20.Ne4+ Kc7 21.Rxd8 Bxd8
Position after 21…Bxd8
22.Nxf6 (22.Bd5! Rb8 ( 22…Nxd5? 23.Qd6+ Kb7 24.c6+) 23.Nxf6 Bxf6 24.Qxh7) Rh1+ 23.Kb2 Bxf6 24.Qe4 Rh5 25.Qxa8 Rxc5 26.Qxa7+ Kc6 27.e4 Bxc3+ 28.Kb1 Bd4 29.Bd5+ Kd6 30.Qf7 b4 31.Qxf4+ Ke7 32.Qf7+ Kd8
Positon after 32…Kd8
33.e5! 1-0
One entertaining game I forgot to mention in my round 4 report was the entertaining battle between FM Eugene Yanayt and Christopher Heung. In the following position it is black to move. White had just got his second queen but black however managed to save the game – how?
Position after 38.c8Q
Black played 38…Rg1+! and initially it looked like white cannot capture the rook due to mate although this is an illusion because white can interpose one of his queens, e.g. 39.Kxg1 Qg6+ 40.Qg4 and there are a lot of complications! White decided to go for 39.Kh2 which just leads to a repetition after 39…Rg2+.
I happened to be walking past at the moment black played his move and caught it on camera for the whole world to see.
Good coverage! Nice mix of commentary games and photos.