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

Mark Heben leads after fourth round at Hastings

GM Mark Hebden jumped into the lead after four rounds at the Hastings Chess Congress 2007 - 2008. He beat Simon Williams to collect 3.5 points out of a possible 4. Most of the other top boards were drawn. Top seed Malakhatko is now back in contention and just half a point behind Hebden. Malakhatko beat Gavin Lock.

Other notable winners of the fourth round were Gawain Jones over Mehdi Hasan, Mamedov over Gurbanzade, Pavlovic over Kwiatkowski and Lalic over Alan Grant.

Leading Standings after Round 4:

Mark Hebden - 3.5

Tahirov, Conquest, Chatalbashev, Pert, Gormally, Bates, Georgiev, Sengupta, Lalic, Haslinger, Glenn Flear, Bindrich, Neverov, Mamedov, Pavlovic, Houska, Malakhatko, Radovanovic, Marusenko, Gawain Jones - 3

Leading boards drawn at Hastings chess congress

The lead pairings, Williams vs Tahirov and Sengupta vs Gormally were drawn. Top seed Malakhatko continued his trek back from the shock first round defeat at the Hastings Chess Congress 2007 - 2008.

There were some winners from the home team when Mark Hebden, Stuart Conquest, Nicholas Pert, Haslinger, Houska, and others won. Gormally was held to a draw by the young Deep Sengupta of India. The other two leading Indians, Satyapragyan and Roy Chowdhury, lost today to Neverov and Georgiev respectively.

Leaders after 3 rounds:

Chatalbashev, Falko, Haslinger, Gerogiev, Neverov, Flear, Hebden, Williams, Gormally, Tahirov, Sengupta, Conquest, Pert (2.5 Pts each)

Malakhatko, Gawain Jones, Mamedov & others (2 points each)