Three tied for first place at Hastings

Vadim Malakhatko, Nidjat Mamedov, and Valeriy Neverov were tied for the top place at the Hastings Chess Congress after the 10th and final round.
There was a six way tie for the next place.

Simon Williams is likely to become a Grandmaster as he crossed the mandatory 2500 mark with his performance at Hastings.

Standings after the final Round 10:

Malakhatko, Mamedov, Neverov - 7.5
Bindrich, Flear, Gawain Jones, Lalic, Pavlovic, Pert - 7
Chatalbashev, Conquest, Eames, Gormally, Greet, Haslinger, Hebden, Houska, Tahirov - 6.5

Hastings chess Round 6 and Round 7 pairings

Hastings is moving in a very peculiar direction. Usually, in Swiss tournaments, the number of leaders drops as more rounds are played. But at Hastings, the number of leaders in increasing as a result of which we now have 8 leaders !

Only Greet, Mamedov and Lalic could win on the top boards.

Leading results:

HEBDEN,Mark (4) ½ - ½ MALAKHATKO,Vadim (4) CHATALBASHEV,Boris (4) ½ - ½ CONQUEST,Stuart (4) NEVEROV,Valeriy (4) ½ - ½ PERT,Nicholas (4) GREET,Andrew (3½) 1 - 0 GEORGIEV,Vladimir (3½) JONES,Gawain (3½) ½ - ½ RENDLE,Thomas (3½)
BOGNER,Sebastian (3½) 0 - 1 MAMEDOV,Nidjat (3½)
TAHIROV,Farhad (3½) ½ - ½ RADOVANOVIC,Jovica (3½)
PAVLOVIC,Milos (3½) ½ - ½ HOUSKA,Jovanka (3½)
ROY CHOWDHURY,Saptars (3½) ½ - ½ BINDRICH,Falko (3½)
LALIC,Bogdan (3½) 1 - 0 COLLINS,Sam (3½)

Standings after Round 6:

Malakhatko, Lalic, Pert, Chatalbashev, Greet, Mamedov, Williams, Neverov, Conquest, Hebden - 4.5 pts
Kaufman, Gawain Jones, Rendle, Tahirov, Pavlovic, Rudd

Hastings chess Round 5

There are now six leaders at the top of the leader board. Overnight sole leader, Hebden was held to a draw by Bindrich Falko. Malakhatko continued his impressive comeback after the shock first round loss. He has now won four games in a row. Chatalbashev beat Glenn Flear. Stuart Conquest and Nicholas Pert won against Deep Sengupta and Abu Sufian Shakil. Houska held GM Gawain Jones to a creditable draw.

Results of Round 5:

1 BINDRICH,Falko (3) HEBDEN,Mark (3½) 0.5-0.5
2 MALAKHATKO,Vadim (3) HASLINGER,Stewart (3) 1-0
3 FLEAR,Glenn (3) CHATALBASHEV,Boris (3) 0-1
4 GEORGIEV,Vladimir (3) LALIC,Bogdan (3) 0.5-0.5
5 HOUSKA,Jovanka (3) JONES,Gawain (3) 0.5-0.5
6 MAMEDOV,Nidjat (3) GORMALLY,Daniel (3) 0.5-0.5
7 BATES,Richard (3) NEVEROV,Valeriy (3) 0-1
8 CONQUEST,Stuart (3) SENGUPTA,Deep (3) 1-0
9 MARUSENKO,Peter (3) TAHIROV,Farhad (3) 0.5-0.5
10 PERT,Nicholas (3) SHAKIL,Abu Sufian (3) 1-0

Leading Standings:
Hebden, Malakhatko, Conquest, Chatalbashev, Neverov, Pert (4 Pts)
Greet, Georgiev, Gawain Jones, Rendle, Bogner, Mamedov, Tahirov,Bindrich & others (3.5 pts)

Hastings Chess Round 2

The pace of upsets subsided somewhat in the second round of the Hastings Chess Congress Tournament. But the Indians continued their rampage. Deep Sengupta beat fifth seed Nidjat Mamedov, Saptarishi Roy Chowdhury drew Stuart Conquest, S Satyapragyan drew against Pert Nicholas.

In other notable games, Farhad Tahirov beat Jovanka Houska. Mark Hebden was held to a draw by Andrew Greet. JONES,Gawain beat Poobalasingam to rise up in the standings list.