Equal first!

Much to report over the last few days, with a lot of interesting chess being played.
Sadly none of that came in round 6, where the Mastrovasilis brothers (the world's strongest active chess playing family I am reliably informed)

comfortably held both me and Stephen with black.

Round 7 and Stephen came unstuck at the hands of a man who seems to love chess more than anyone else in the world. GM Mirzoev from Azerbaijan (check out the number of games he has played in the last few years if you don't believe me) I managed to win a very hairy game with FM Pavlidis, where my opponent rejected the chance of a repetition only to blunder.

Round 8 and I was facing GM Czebe from Hungary, who very kindly made a serious blunder in the opening in a slightly worse position, allowing me to win in 23 moves. Stephen also finished reasonably quickly, drawing with GM Nikolaidis in a Queens Indian.

And so to round 9, and me and Mirzoev found ourselves half a point clear of the field. His slighly dubious opening choice left me a bit better but a crafty draw offer left me with little choice...

So I am sitting here hoping that the guys on 6/8 draw and Stephen does the business against IM Mezsaros for more money for me and him.

A full report, with some photos and games I hope will follow soon! Full results, photos etc are here