Report by Ignatius Leong
In the Juniors, Malaysian Dawson Tan lost a 9-mover to Korean Ahn Hongjin within 20 minutes of play. Ahn maintains his lead over Filipino Daniel Quizon and Vietnamese Nguyen Hoang Duc who scored victories over Indonesian Jodi Setyaki and Korean FM Lee Jun Hyeok respectively. With 2 rounds to go, the leading players will face off the “weaker” players and any upset may still be possible.
Early leader Vietnamese Nguyen Hoang Duc with 4/4 suffered his third loss in 4 rounds after Round 8. Meanwhile Korean hopeful Ahn Hongjin and Filipino 14-year old Daniel Quizon won their respective games to remain in the lead.
Duc lost to Korean CM Kwon Sehyun. Another Korean FM Lee Jun Hyeok defeated compatriot You Haneul.
Going into the last round, the pairings avoided the encounters between players with more than 50% from the same federation. The results of Ahn and Daniel will determine who the new champion will be while the results of Duc, Kwon and Lee shall decide who will make the IM norm.
Let us see if history will be made for South Korea!
In the penultimate round for the Girls Championships, the 3 stronger players breezed through their games to assure themselves of the WIM norm when Rosamund Koo lost to Korean WFM Lee Seyeon. Rosamund was having the upper hand throughout but her play deteriorated and finally helped to be mated in one. A win could have still given her an outside chance for the WIM norm.
In the last round, Indonesian Diajeng Singgih will have to win with the White pieces against sole leader Filipino Kylen Mordido who has 5.5 points – one ahead of Diajeng and Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Minh Oanh.