Vella leading after fifth round

In an unorthodox opening of the Sicilian Defence, which transposed into a variation of a Queen's Pawn opening, current Malta champion Colin Pace missed a tactical manoeuvre during Round Five of the Malta Chess Open and lost his white bishop for two pawns.

This was enough for Duncan Vella to transform the game into a full point. He now leads the field with 4.5 points out of five games.

Thanks to this important win the Malta Open is in for some exciting contests with two rounds remaining and no fewer than nine players within one point of each other.

In the top boards, no.1 seed David Cilia Vincenti suffered another loss against the prepared Hans Peter Graf, while Harry Camilleri and Horace Cassar won their encounters against lower-rated Oliver Said and Charles Sinn respectively.

Special mention goes to Daniel Saliba's win against the experienced Joe Demanuele. Saliba is now on three points along with other higher rated players. The top clashes of the penultimate round sees Vella against Camilleri and Graf facing Pace.

Standings: 1. Vella 4.5; 2-7. Pace, Graf, Camilleri Harry Cassar, Petterson, Mizzi 4; 8-9. Cardona, Sammut 3.5; 10-16. Cilia Vincenti, Said O., Attard I., Sinn, Bugelli, Borg B., Saliba D. 3; 17-23. Fenech, Aquilina, Ibrahim, Saliba L., Camilleri Hans, Lau, Saliba P. 2.5; 24-30. Azzopardi, Demanuele, Aleksandr, Farrugia, Psaila, Muscat Baron, Cuschieri 2; 31-34. Borg R., Saliba R., Micallef, Zammit 1.5; 35-38. Said R., Aksentic, Ebejer, Gauci 1; 39. Attard S. 0.