After Round 5: GM Mitrabha Guha leads the 21st Dato Arthur Tan Merdeka Open

GM Mitrabha Guha (2540) of India emerged as clear leader but only by half a point. In Round 5, Guha  on board 1, had an all-India clash against the tournament’s top seed, GM Iniyan Pa (2609). By holding the higher-rated Grandmaster to a draw, Guha took over the lead from Iniya who was leading initially. Guha leads with 4.5/5 points.

GM Siddharth Jagadeesh

IM Nguyen Quoc Hy

IM Jiang Haochen

GM Iniyan Pa

The 11-Player Logjam for shared 2nd place:

Rank	Name	Rating	Federation
2	GM Iniyan Pa	2609	IND
3	IM Kushagra Mohan	2446	IND
4	IM Iljya Grigorjev	2432	RUS
5	IM Jiang Haochen	2457	CHN
6	GM Andrey Gorovets	2420	BLR
7	IM Ayush Sharma	2426	IND
8	GM Siddharth Jagadeesh	2513	SGP
9	IM Mohammad Fahad Rahman	2443	BAN
10	IM Paulo Bersamina	2407	PHI
11	IM Nguyen Quoc Hy	2424	VIE
12	GM Boris Savchenko	2477	RUS

September 3rd Free Day.

After five rounds of taxing classical chess, a much-needed Free Day on September 3rd. This allows for a much needed rest and when Round 6 resumes on Friday, September 4th, at 3:00 PM, it will be interesting to see who had benefitted (or not!) from that rest day.

Previewing Round 6

• Board 1: GM Mitrabha Guha (4.5) [White] vs GM Siddharth Jagadeesh (4.0) [Black]
• Board 2: IM Iljya Grigorjev (4.0) [White] vs GM Iniyan Pa (4.0) [Black]
• Board 3: GM Boris Savchenko (4.0) [White] vs IM Ayush Sharma (4.0) [Black]
• Board 4: IM Nguyen Quoc Hy (4.0) [White] vs IM Jiang Haochen (4.0) [Black]

All eyes will be fixed on Board 1. GM Siddharth Jagadeesh of Singapore holds the immediate opportunity to upend the standings.