Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son and Dao Tien Hai leading with 5.5 points each

In round seven, Vietnamese Grandmasters Dao Tien Hai and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son made a quick draw to lead the KL Open Chess Championship 2009 with 5.5 points.

Also happy to draw were International Master Sadikin Irwanto from Indonesia with the young Kazakhstan FIDE Master Yevgeniy Pak and Grandmaster Marat Dhumaev with International Master Tahir Vadhidov in all Uzbekistan encounter to reach 5 points.

This allowed Grandmaster Susanto Megaranto and FIDE Master Sharif Mahmud, both from Indonesia, back in the reckoning after victories respectively over FIDE Master Timothy Chan of Singapore and Candidate Master Nguyen Van Nuy of Vietnam, while FIDE Master Daniel Chan also made his move by beating Indonesian FIDE Master Wahono Awam.

GM Dao Tien Hai

So with two rounds to go, the two leaders are just half a point ahead of 7 others and the key match ups for the eighth round are as follows:

GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son 2589 VIE 5½ - 5 FM Mahmud Syarif 2347 INA

FM Pak Yevgeniy 2348 KAZ 5 - 5½ GM Thien Hai Dao 2542 VIE

GM Dzhumaev Marat 2532 UZB 5 - 5 FM Chan Yi-Ren Daniel 2340 SIN

IM Irwanto Sadikin 2429 INA 5 - 5 GM Megaranto Susanto 2527 INA

IM Vakhidov Tahir 2520 UZB 4½ - 4½ WIM Muminova Nafisa 2320 UZB

GM Iuldachev Saidali 2519 UZB 4½ - 4½ CM Farid Firman Syah 2207 INA

IM Bitoon Richard 2490 PHI 4½ - 4½ Rahman Masruri 1987 INA

IM Liu Dede 2419 INA 4½ - 4½ GM Nguyen Anh Dung 2454 VIE

CM Nguyen Hoang Nam 2329 VIE 4½ - 4½ Tolentino Rustum 2362 PHI

Round 4 report and official website