Flash

Three Tie for First!

Onischuk

Finegold

Shulman

GM Alexander Onischuk is tied for first with round 6 leaders Benjamin Finegold and Yuri Shulman after he defeated GM Stripunsky. Finegold and Shulman drew their game. Nine players are directly behind with 5.5 points.

Will Someone Break Out?

For the last two years, the World Open has had a large number of co-winners with the champion being decided via a blitz playoff.

In 2000, Benjamin, Ivanov, Ehlvest, Fedorowicz, Serper, Blatny, Goldin, and Kudrin tied for first with 7 points. In 1999, ten players tied for the title with 7 points: Ehlvest, Benjamin, Novikov, Serper, Timoshenko, Yermolinsky, Akopian, Gulko, Shabalov, and Fishbein.

In both years, the last rounds were marked with a bunch of quick draws, some legit draws, and a few key dramatic battles (including in 2000 Hodgson vs. Ivanov - draw; and 1999 Akopian vs. Ivanov - 1-0).

The real question for 2001 is this: Is there a player who will make it to the magic 7.5 total? Will someone break out? Or are we going to see another pack of winners at 7.0. Stay tuned!

Note: 195 games are now online! You can download the PGN file or look at them in a Java Viewer.

Ashley

Yudasin

Goldin

Gruenfeld

Hodgson

Smirin

Benjamin

Doettling