There are still very few draws in the Groningen Chess Festival, and the leaders keep going
at each other’s throats. As a consequence, after today there are only two leaders left with 4½
points out of 5 games: Valery Kazakouski and Evgeny Romanov. Both played very solidly as
White today, beating Titas Stremavicius and Ori Kobo respectively. The Dutch hope, Arthur
de Winter, had to hand the point to the old hand Sergei Tiviakov, so the latter is now in
pursuit of the two tournament leaders, half a point behind them. Three other players reached
4 points today: Thomas Beerdsen suffered his second tournament defeat against fourteen-
year-old Dengla Aarav in a sharp Dragon Sicilian. Sambit Panda defeated Mary Ann Gomes
in a pressing game, and the sixteen-year-old Bulgarian Nikolai Kanov, who beat Irina
Bulmaga in the most beautiful game of the day. Nick Maatman missed a wonderful chance to
join this small group; against Dimitri Reinderman he failed to see a tactic that would have
won a queen, and after many adventures the game was drawn.