5th Pichay Cup round 7-8: Mikheil Mchedlishvili, Ehsan Ghaemmaghami leads with 1 round to play

If my memory serves me correctly, no European player ever won this tournament. If Georgian GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili win this thing, he will be the first to do so. With one round to play, he's thinly holding the top spot with Iranian GM Ehsan Ghaemmaghami, the man who won the 2nd Subic international chess championship and accountable for Wesley So's final GM norm two years ago at the 3rd Pichay Cup in DutyFree Mall in Paranaque via short draw in the final round. Both Mchedlishvili and Ghaemmaghami posted similar score of 6.0 after eight rounds. Chasing them going into the final round, literally breathing behind their necks are nine players with 5.5 points, Laylo, Antonio, Truong Son, Zhang, Gupta, Gagunashvili, Li, Torre, and Ismagambetov. So there's still a lot of if and what if here. Naturally, the two leaders won't face each other on the final round so everything is not yet settled here and just like the recently held 4th PGMA Cup, expect another photo finish dash at the finishing line. Their differences on the board may once again be decided on tie break points. That's how balanced the competition of the PGMA and Pichay Cup this year. Mchedlishvili will have world junior champ, Abhijeet Gupta in the final round while Ghaemmaghami will face last year champ, Li Shilong of China.

Final round will start tomorrow at 9:00 am at the same venue at the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) Bldg. in Katipunan Ave., Quezon City. Awarding ceremony will begin soon after round 9.

Round 8 results
Standings after 8 rounds
Final round pairings