Report after round 5

The Swedes after round five took over the lead for the first time: GM Tiger Hillarp following a successful opening won a nice attacking duel against GM Stellan Brynell on second board, while IM Jung Min Seo on first board had few problems saving a draw as black against Norwegian GM Frode Urkedal.

First rated GM Vahap Sanal meanwhile picked up an exchange in the middle game and much later won the endgame as black against Gudmundur Kjartansson.

Third rated GM Vitaly Kunin, fifth rated GM Erik Blomqvist and sixth rated GM Kaido Kulaots meanwhile all won more or less convincingly in five-hour games against young Norwegian opponents. The GMs above 2500 made an outstanding 6,5 out of 7 today, as Alon Greenfeld of Israel elegantly won a much better endgame against so far solid Swedish FM Fredrik Lindh.

Hillarp following a brilliant first half of the tournament is now leading alone at 4,5/5, but still the tiger no way can feel safe as Sanal, Urkedal, Blomqvist, Kulaots and Seo are all running half a step behind him at 4,0.

Following the very strong result for the GMs above 2500 this was not a great round for the title norm candidates below 2500, but Seo still is on schedule for a GM-norm. Two Norwegian juniors, FM Elham Abdulrauf and FM Jens Ingebretsen, are around schedule for IMnorms and several other players can still be in that run.

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Read the full report in our bulletin.