Commonwealth Open

 

 

Paciencia Enrique (pic) emerged as champion in the open event of Commonwealth chess tournament in Singapore. His last round draw with Malaysian IM LimYee Weng make no difference to his standing as he already had 7 points and his nearest opponent only 5

The draw helps Lim Yee Weng to finish with  5 points and 7th overall ,above 2 other Malaysians , IM Mas Hafizul and NM Edward Lee who both finished with 4.5 points.

The open drew only 25 players , Singapore has 8 Representatives,India 9 , both the countries contributing more than 65 percent of total number of players

All the grandmasters from the commonwealth countries stayed away including Grandmasters from the host country as as such the Quality of the tournament is affected.

IM Mas hafizul who was seeded 4th came out a disappointing 11th in the final list just above compatriot  Edward. Mas lost 2 games in winning position  in round 8 against Singapore FM Fernandez Daniel Howard and also round 6 against Indian IM Ashwin Jayaram