By beating the Polish IM Radoslaw Barski, also the international master, Vuppala Prraneeth surprises and isolates himself in command of the classification benefiting from the draw in 7 of the first 10 boards of round 5. The 16 GMs present have had a more conservative first half of the tournament and 8 of them are just behind the current leader, with 3.5 points. It has been a very tough tournament at the top and the most rated player of the tournament, the Armenian Karen Gregoryan, is already one point less than the current leader of the classification. The next two rounds will dictate who will position themselves for victory in the strongest and most competitive tournament in the history of Portuguese chess.
Among the female participation, WGM Julia Antolak, from Poland, achieved an excellent draw against MI from Kazakhstan, Kaczmarek Aleksander,
while in the clash between former national champion Mariana Silva and French WGM Nino Maizuradze, the French champion took the woman.
One of the surprises of the day is the victory of the young Indian women's MI Sakshi Chitlange against MF Pablo Mari. In one of the longest matches of the day, the young Indian defeated the Spanish player who had tied one of the favorites to win the tournament, Cuban GM Carlos Albornoz.
Among the Portuguese, the young former national champion, MI André Sousa naturally imposed himself on the young Miguel Morais. The pairing of the 6th round meant that André Sousa would once again face a Portuguese player, MF Gustavo Ribeiro, who prevailed in the previous round of the WFM against the Cuban Lartitza Alfonzo.
Great expectations for this 6th round where some of the candidates may already commit their aspirations to victory in the competition and where we will also have a very interesting women's clash, between the already mentioned Sakshi Cgitalnge who will play as white and the French Nino Maizuradze.
