Woke an hour late and feeling tired for the first time this morning. I guess the gruelling 2 day rounds is finally taking its toll. It's still only 6am and I can still enjoy my usual Dim Sum for the last time.
Strange that I feel tired because I am not even a chess player! All I do is take pictures.



(rare picture taken of one of the top boards just before a short draw was agreed)


That probably explains the high number of quick draws especially at higher boards. That does indeed take away the life out of the tournament. Particularly it defeats the purpose of having live broadcast of the games which does incur cost and is not free.


Measures against this may be to space out the playing schedule allowing players some breathing space and also enforcing minimum number of moves.


Anyway, top players who have higher stamina and are willing to risk are rewarded in this play-safe-with-quick-draw attitudes of some top players. For example yesterday's decisive game between Nguyen Duc Hoa vs Richard Bitoon was a no holds barred game taking almost 4 hours to complete. You can see a replay of it somewhere on this blog.

Duc Hoa is now the leader going into the final round.