Monday 28 January 2008

Zhao rolls on

Australian IM Zong Yuan Zhao has had a pretty remarkable 3 months since traveling to the FIDE World Cup Knockout as the Oceania Champion. After being knocked out in Rd 1 by Magnus Carlsen (who just tied for first at Corus btw), he went on to win the December 1st Saturday Tournament in Hungary (GM Norm No.1), then win the Cerrado GM Event in Spain (GM Norm No.2) and is now on 4.5/6 at the Gibraltar Masters and is looking good for his third and final GM Norm. He has played 4 GM's so far (scoring 2.5/4) and is paired against GM Mikhail Gurevich in Round 7. Zhao's two big games of the tournament was his Round 5 win over GM Hikaru Nakamura (2670) and his Round 6 draw with GM Alexander Beliavsky (2638). Currently he has a performance rating of over 2700 (shades of the 2006/07 Australian Open!), and if he maintains his form, should easily score another GM norm.

Zhao,Z (2487) - Beliavsky,A (2638) [C93]
Gibtelecom Masters Gibraltar (6.7), 27.01.2008

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3 d6 9.h3 Re8 10.d4 Bb7 11.Nbd2 Bf8 12.a3 h6 13.Bc2 Nb8 14.b3 Nbd7 15.Bb2 g6 16.a4 Bg7 17.Bd3 c6 18.Qc2 Qc7 19.c4 bxa4 20.c5 d5 21.bxa4 dxe4 22.Bxe4 exd4 23.Bxd4 a5 24.Bd3 Ba6 25.Bxa6 Rxa6 26.Rxe8+ Nxe8 27.Re1 Ra8 28.Ne4 Bxd4 29.Nxd4 Ndf6 30.Nd6 Nxd6 31.cxd6 Qxd6 32.Qxc6 Qxc6 33.Nxc6 Ra6 34.Rc1 Nd7 35.Nb8 Nxb8 36.Rc8+ Kg7 37.Rxb8 Rf6 38.Rb5 Rf5 39.Rxf5 gxf5 40.Kh2 f4 41.g3 Kf6 42.gxf4 Ke6 43.Kg3 f5 44.Kh4 Kf6 45.Kh5 Kg7 46.f3 Kh7 47.h4 (D) ½-½

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