Of Having The Sole Lead - Mark Siew

Mark Siew continued his fine run beating Lew Ken Yew in their 3rd round encounter after the latter succumbed to a tactical miscalculation in the hope of earning a counter attack on the Queen side. The attacked fizzled and a few moves later, Ken Yew resigned giving Mark the full point. With top seed Fong Yit San drawing his game against Tan Jun Feng on Table 1, and Amier Hamzah splitting the point with Aron Teh on Table 3, Mark Siew remains as the only player standing with a perfect 4 points out of 4 rounds

It will be an interesting encounter between pole leader Mark Siew and top seed Fong Yit San in tomorrow's early morning Round 5. A win by any of the two player could mean a runaway championship will be in the making. From here on, stamina, focus and determination will play a major role towards sealing the championship title.

For the Girls section, three players sharing the lead with 2.5 points each in Nur Najiha, Nithyalakshmi and Tan Li Ting. Tan Li Ting played well on Table 2 to hand Nur Nabila her second consecutive defeat in the event. Li Ting played well to maintain her extra pawn advantage and after being able to mobilize her rook to the 8th rank, attacking White's King from the rear, it was difficult for Nabila to continue her game as she was on the defensive throughout the endgame. 

On Table 1, Nithyalakshmi continued to play well and managed to draw her game against Nur Najiha after forcing the latter into repetition of moves. Dominating the 7th rank with her connected rooks, Najiha had little choice but to accept the drawn game from Nithya albeit having 2 pawns to the better including a passed pawn on the d file.

In tomorrow's early round, Nur Najiha will take on Tan Li Ting on Table 1 whilst Nithya will be up against Kelly Lim on Table 2. Anis Fariha is paired against Sarika on Table 3 and top seed Nur Nabil dropped to Table 4 to face Cheong Keat Zhen

Round 5 tomorrow will start at 9:00am followed by Round 6 at 2:30pm

Tan Li Ting played well to hand Nur Nabila her second defeat. It was a bad day for Nabila as she also had lost her early morning round game

Scene towards the end of Round 4

Tan Jun Feng drew his game against top seed Fong Yit San whilst Mark Siew (in the background) won against Lew Ken Yew to remain undefeated after 4 rounds

Nithya splitting the point with Nur Najiha after forcing repetition of moves