Because the two top boards ended in draws, the Lithuanian grandmaster Titas Stremavicius managed to join the four leaders by outplaying Michal Krasenkow in a complicated endgame. Ori Kobo and Valery Kazakouski did give it a try but didn’t take too much risk and made a correct draw. Arthur de Winter went for it one more time against grandmaster Evgeny Romanov, but the result was a hard-fought draw in which a lot of beautiful ideas remained under the surface; the variation with which De Winter forced the draw was also attractive. These five players are now all on 3½ points out of four games.

The performance of two female title holders was noteworthytoday: both WGM Mary Ann Gomes from India (against grandmaster Vladislav Nevednichy) and IM Irina Bulmaga from Romania (against the Dutch master Migchiel de Jong) won with Black in an attack that was introduced by an elegant knight sacrifice.