After the dust of the skirmishes in the penultimate round of the Hong Kong 2013 Chess Open Preliminaries last Monday had settles we see four players emerge with 6 points and seven players with the minimal distance possible of 5.5 points.

Melvin Yu’s loss against Alberto Muniz did not dethrone him from first place and if in the last round Melvin manages to defeat Jake Chan, he could possible become the champion. But Melvin better had a very good day because Jake hasn’t lost a single game against three of the top 5 players he met so far.

In that background, next week’s games between Alberto and Chor Yuen Chong and the two FIDE Masters Brian Dew and Javier Martin, will be as important as Luen-Wah Luk’s (FM) game against Edgardo Borigas. Michael Yang, the only youth player (Under 13) who has sustained himself in the top 10 will now have to prove his talent against Chak Man Chan (CM) to qualify for the Finals.

Looking at the tie-break points right now, the loss of our Caissa heroes Peter Whalley and Hannah Dale last week have probably put them out of the top 9 range and Finals of this year. But no worries – both had just picked up chess only a few months after a long hiatus. This was just a warming up …