The fifth round of the Master Tournament was the first one without any draws, every game was battled out until the very end. The four tournament leaders all won, widening the gap with the rest of the field. GM Jha Sriram got a big defended passed pawn on e6 early in the game, but Romario Sanches fought back really hard and it seems that with 42...Nc7 Black actually could have drawn the game. This wasn't trivial though and in the end the grandmaster won after all.

IM Luis Lazaro Aguero Jimenez quickly stole the initiative with Black in the Sicilian Sveshnikov against FM Roger Matoewi and won an exchange with a small combination. IM Thomas Willemze used the Scandinavian opening to surprise FM Dewperkash Gajadin and won a smooth counterattacking game. FM Ryan Harper started attacking IM Gerardo Lebredo Zaragoitia in classical fashion with g4-g5 and his creative knight jump to h5 was rewarded with a full point.

WGM Alina L’Ami knew her stuff well in the main line of the King's Indian, and when IM Jose Luis Vilela De Acuna started to become impatient on the queenside, she firmly countered through the centre. With this win L'Ami took over 5th place in the standings.

1st Srefidensi standings after round 5:
1-4 Sriram, Willemze, Aguero Jimenez, Harper (4)
5 L'Ami (3)
6 Vilela De Acuna (2.5)
7 Lebredo Zaragoitia (2)
8 Matoewi (1)
9 Sanches (0.5)
10 Gajadin (0)

IM Merijn van Delft

The fourth round saw the tournament leaders paired, but the players decided to save some energy with a quick draw. The tournament schedule is indeed quite tight with nine games in six days. Actually, GM Jha Sriram was much better prepared for IM Thomas Willemze's Spanish Four Knights than Ryan Harper was in round two, and in fact got a large advantage right from the opening. Afterwards, he probably regretted not having played on.

FM Dewperkash Gajadin must be praised for his enterprising attitude towards the game, but IM Luis Lazaro Aguero Jimenez calmly neutralised all attacking aspirations and went on to win. WGM Alina L’Ami, who travels around the world a lot, with and without her Dutch husband GM Erwin L'Ami, possibly paid the price for her busy schedule of late. Against FM Ryan Harper she build up quite a promising position from an irregular Slav opening, only to blunder everything away in a few moves time.

IM Jose Luis Vilela De Acuna build up a dominating position against Romario Sanches with a lot of patience, winning the game by purely positional means. IM Gerardo Lebredo Zaragoitia also showed his positional skills by slowly but surely outplaying FM Roger Matoewi. The Surinam players may be suffering so far, but the experience gained in this tournament will surely pay off in the future.

1st Srefidensi standings after round 4:
1-4 Sriram, Aguero Jimenez, Willemze, Harper (3)
5 Vilela De Acuna (2.5)
6-7 L'Ami, Lebredo Zaragoitia (2)
8 Matoewi (1)
9 Saches (0.5)
10 Gajadin (0)

IM Merijn van Delft

Starting from the third round, the games are being transmitted live on the Chessbase server, reaching a worldwide audience. In IM Jose Luis Vilela De Acuna versus IM Thomas Willemze, a closed kind of Benoni position didn't leave much space to make progress for either side. Neither of the players decided to risk it and thus a draw was agreed. This gave GM Jha Sriram the chance to join the tournament lead with 2.5 out of 3, by beating FM Dewperkash Gajadin. In the classical Queen's Gambit Declined the grandmaster from India systematically increased the pressure.

The Cuban derby between IM Gerardo Lebredo Zaragoitia and IM Luis Lazaro Aguero Jimenez saw a Grünfeld Indian opening in which Black slowly but surely got the initiative. White tried to confuse the issue with an exchange sacrifice, but Black never let go of his winning advantage.

FM Roger Matoewi is not an expert on opening theory, but this man certainly knows how to fight for the initiative. With an enterprising positional exchange sacrifice, he managed to steal the initiative from WGM Alina L’Ami, and went on to create a totally winning position. Just like in the first round, Matoewi let his opponent escape though, this time resulting in a draw.

FM Ryan Harper recovered from his loss in the second round by beating Romario Sanches. The e5-e6 positional pawn sacrifice in the opening was highly instructive, and although the young man from Surinam fought hard, a fierce mating attack based on opposite coloured bishops decided the game.

1st Srefidensi standings after round 3:
1-2 Sriram, Willemze (2.5)
3-5 Aguero Jimenez, L'Ami, Harper (2)
6 Vilela De Acuna (1.5)
7-8 Matoewi, Lebredo Zaragoitia (1)
9 Saches (0.5)
10 Gajadin (0)

IM Merijn van Delft

After two rounds, IM Thomas Willemze is the only one left with a 100% score. The Dutchman recovered well from his shaky first round performance with a clean win against FM Ryan Harper. The opening was a Spanish Four Knights and Willemze quickly got the initiative due to better preparation. Harper still put up resistance, but couldn’t prevent a loss.

Top seeds IM Luis Lazaro Aguero Jimenez and GM Jha Sriram didn’t hurt eachother too much in a classical Ruy Lopez position and agreed to an early draw. WGM Alina L’Ami could consider herself lucky, when her opponent IM Gerardo Lebredo Zaragoitia lost on time in a drawn position.

The Surinam derby between the current national champion Romario Sanches and the former national champion FM Roger Matoewi ended in a draw after a great battle. Sanches had two extra c-pawns in the endgame, but his experienced opponent fought hard to achieve a draw. FM Dewperkash Gajadin bravely went all out for the attack, but IM Jose Luis Vilela De Acuna placed a deadly counter.

IM Merijn van Delft