The Indonesian Open Chess Championship (IOCC) 2013 has now finished its second to last round.
On top board it was the match-up of the resourceful IM Nguyen Duc Hoa (6.5/9) who had been taking his chances well, against long time leader GM Alexey Dreev (7/9), but this time the vastly experienced Russian was a little too strong in a game that was last to finish.
The adjacent second board saw GM Alexander Moiseenko (6.5/9) facing new co-leader GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly (7/9) but had a surprisingly easy, even routine win.
GM Sandro Mareco (6.5/9) was paired against GM Nigel Short (6/9) on third board and despite the very best efforts of both players to win it was a still a draw, with yet another fortress constructed by the Englishman, a result that also left them both still unbeaten.
All still in with a chance provided they won, were all the remaining 6 pointers, but it was only on fourth board that GM G N Gopal proved up to the challenge with a win against GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son.
The main standings going into the eleventh and last round are therefore:
1. Dreev 8/10, 2. Moiseenko 7.5/10, 3-5. Mareco, Ganguly, and G N Gopal 7/10, 5-13 Short, Dao Tien Hai, Abijeet Gupta, Vadim Malakhatko, Oliver Barbosa, Batchuluun Tsegmed, Vaibhav Suri, Elisabeth Paehtz, and Susanto Megaranto 6.5/10.
Of those looking for title norms, Anjas Novitas, despite losing, still extended his IM norm to 10 games while Dewi AA Citra brought more joy to Indonesia with a WIM norm.
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