Sorry for the lack of updates here recently, but between Thursday playing and directing, Friday family stuff, and yesterday finishing an article for American Chess Magazine I wasn’t able to keep up as well as I would have liked to.
Round five saw Aman paired against Armenian GM Gabriel Sargissian. Aman needed a win to realistically keep his hopes alive, but unfortunately the noted endgame player Sargissian ground him down in a more or less equal ending.
In round six Aman had Black vs. English IM David Eggleston. Aman played his third different response to 1.e4 in this tournament, this time essaying the Sicilian Kan.
Once he secured a passed c pawn that was running to daylight Eggleston resigned.
Round Eight once again had Hambo paired against a tough GM, this time the Peruvian legend Julio Granda-Zuniga.
Long time readers of mine will know that I often cover Julio’s games since he was the first GM I ever met, way back in 1992 in my hometown in Midland, TX when he played in a small local event of ours since he was in town seeing a family friend.
After a maneuvering game in the Old Indian Aman unfortunately stepped in to a tactical shot and was soon put away by the Peruvian.
Right now Aman is playing his final round game against American IM Kostya Kavutskiy, which I will post later once the games are published.
Til Next Time,
Chris Wainscott