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Details: Written by Marc Lang

In the 2017 KZCC Master Open, five players share 1st place after seven rounds GM Eltaj Safarli, GM Alexander Motylev, GM Aleksandr Rakhmanov, GM Ferenc Berkes and GM Gadir Guseinov. Winner on tiebreak is the Azeri Eltaj Safarli, who drew his last round game against Gadir Guseinov and thus came ahead of the Russian Alexander Motylev, who beat Evgeny Romanov. Best Swiss player was FM Jonas Wyss who finished 18th. Top favorite Alexei Shirov won his last game and finished with 5 points out of seven on rank 12.

Details: Written by Marc Lang

The fourth round of the Kortchnoi Master Tournament rather extended the leaders' group than to decrease it. The games on the top boards were drawn, while Eltaj Safarli joined the top of the field with a win over GM Milos Pavlovic. Before the 5th round, there are six players with 3,5 out of 4 ahead of the pack with no less than 14 players having 3 points. Alexei Shirov again missed to catch up after allowing another draw, this time against the German IM Klaus Klundt.

Today's 5th round will have the following encounters:

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	10	GM	Bauer Christian	2619	3½		3½	GM	Safarli Eltaj	2680	2
2	4	GM	Rakhmanov Aleksandr	2665	3½		3½	GM	Tregubov Pavel V.	2579	13
3	6	GM	Berkes Ferenc	2648	3½		3½	GM	Ivanisevic Ivan	2633	9

In the Main Tournament, only two players are left with a clean score so far: Gustavo Zaldivar and Heinz Vifian and, of course, they will be paired in round 5 to set the course for the possible winner of this section. But the pack is not far off; four players are only half a point away and only waiting for the leaders to slip.

Bo	No.	Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.	Name	Rtg	No.
1	29	Zaldivar Gustavo	1859	4		4	Vifian Heinz	1886	19
2	4	Hirt Markus	1972	3½		3½	Ly Nguyen	1869	26
3	13	Studer Vital	1916	3½		3½	Schneider Marcel	1945	7

Details: Written by Marc Lang

All images credited to Georg Kradolfer

Details

After three rounds, five players are leading the Kortchnoi Open Master Tournament with a clean score of 3 points out of three games and all the three of them are grandmasters: GM Ivan Ivanisevic (Serbia), GM Ferenc Berkes (Hungary), GM Pavel Tregubov (Russia), GM Milos Pavlovic (Serbia) and GM Christian Bauer (France). They are trailed by 7 players with 2,5 points each, among them the Grandmasters Imre Hera and Alexandr Rakhmanov. Top favorite Alexei Shirov stumbled again; this time he drew with the strong FM Andrey Esipenko from Russia.

Today's 4th round will start at 5 pm with the following top encounters:

Board	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	13	GM	Tregubov Pavel V.	2579	3		3	GM	Berkes Ferenc	2648	6
2	9	GM	Ivanisevic Ivan	2633	3		3	GM	Bauer Christian	2619	10
3	2	GM	Safarli Eltaj	2680	2½		3	GM	Pavlovic Milos	2495	16
4	3	GM	Van Wely Loek	2669	2½		2½	GM	Zhigalko Andrey	2577	14
5	17	FM	Esipenko Andrey	2492	2½		2½	GM	Rakhmanov Aleksandr	2665	4
6	5	GM	Motylev Alexander	2658	2½		2½	GM	Hera Imre (junior)	2608	12

In the Main Tournament, 7 players are on top with a clean score, among them the very talented Swiss U16 player Jannik Bounlom. The leaders clash today with the following pairings:

Board	No.	Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.	Name	Rtg	No.
1	7	Schneider Marcel	1945	3		3	Ly Nguyen	1869	26
2	9	Brand Thomas	1928	3		3	Zaldivar Gustavo	1859	29
3	19	Vifian Heinz	1886	3		3	Bounlom Jannik	1855	30
4	31	Juciute Einora	1852	3		2½	Hirt Markus	1972	4