At the 40 per cent completion stage of the Trophy Stall chess tournament, it is difficult to identify a clear winner. Wendell Meusa has won his three games, thereby amassing the maximum three points. He is pursued sharply by Loris Nathoo with 2/1/2 points. At the time of writing, four games remained to be played. Two were played yesterday and two will be contested today to end the tournament. Meusa was yet to match swords with Nathoo, Taffin Khan, Maria Thomas and Frankie Farley. He dismissed Anthony Drayton last Sunday.
In international news, Hikaru Nakamura of the USA won of the Tradewise Gibraltar Masters for a second consecutive year. He defeated Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 3-2 after a tense five-game speed playoff.
Nakamura came from fourth position to eclipse two French and an Indian grandmaster: Vachier-Lagrave, 2785; Etienne Bacrot, 2697 and SP Sethuraman, 2639 who were the leaders with one round to go.
Anna Muzychuk from Ukraine won the women’s award.