The leaders were unchanged after Round 4 of the Club Championship. Armaan Nilim and Jonathan Rubeck could not be paired against each other, as they had both had two Whites in a row: they played Black against other opponents.
Both drew, so neither pulled ahead, but nobody else joined the leaders on 3½/4 either: the only other player with a chance of doing so, Ilya Art Vorozhtsov, lost to pre-tournament rating favourite Elliott Macneil.
The chasing pack in equal third grew to seven, so there are ever more players snapping at the heels of the top two!
There were a lot of byes this round, with only 14 boards in play, the fewest of any round so far.
We’re in for an exciting finish to the tournament, with the fifth round likely to be critical. Will one player pull ahead, or will we see a tight sixth and final round with many players neck-and-neck?
Many thanks to everyone who helped with the organisation this week in the absence of our regular arbiters!
| White | Black | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | O'Gorman, Brendan | 1712 | ½ - ½ | Nilim, Armaan | 1900 |
| 2 | Bohnacker, Andreas | ½ - ½ | Rubeck, Jonathan | 1896 | |
| 3 | Macneil, Elliott | 1982 | 1 - 0 | Vorozhtsov, Ilya Art | 1494 |
| 4 | Ramasamy, Thirukumaran | 1643 | ½ - ½ | Gonzini, Gianmaria | 1895 |
| 5 | Funk, Alexander | 1810 | 1 - 0 | Paulins, Michael | 1702 |
| 6 | Murphy, Nick | 1742 | 0 - 1 | Pepe, Salvatore | 1670 |
| 7 | Ben-Eshak, Djad | 1672 | 0 - 1 | Medworth, Andrew | 1718 |
| 8 | Bansal, Rineesh | 1630 | 0 - 1 | Rogal, Chris S | 1697 |
| 9 | Garcia, Tom | 1661 | 1 - 0 | Bansal, Ronak | 1117 |
| 10 | Shiran, Yoni | 1 - 0 | V, Krish | 1150 | |
| 11 | Kovalenko, Andrey | 1843 | 1 - 0 | Tan, Austin | 974 |
| 12 | Gordon, Marcus | 1413 | 0 - 1 | Kollias, Vasileios | 1761 |
| 13 | Jacobs, Stanley G | 1434 | 1 - 0 | Abraham, Abe | |
| 14 | Pride, Stephen C | 1725 | 1 - 0 | Kapur, Gul | 1478 |