On Tuesday the Richard Riordan rapid super-tournament was concluded, and after one rest day the scores were reset and the 13 participants started it all over again in the Blitz super-tournament.

Naturally, this was an opportunity for those who were not doing so well in the Rapid, and Daniel Fridman took it with both hands. He stormed forward with five successive wins at the start, and then after drawing against Golod he added another two wins for a fantastic 7.5 out of 8.

Only two other contestants could somehow stand this furious pace: Judit Polgar (6.5/8) and Boris Gelfand (5.5/8). Towards the end, the tension and excitement started to manifest themselves. Daniel slowed down a bit, drawing in rounds 10-11, and he still had to face both his main rivals – Boris who switched gear with 3 successive wins which cut the distance from the leader to 1 point, and Judit who missed a chance to catch the leader with her second loss this week to Maxim Rodshtein (an IDF Air Force soldier, who was probably determined to avenge Judit’s simul rout of the Air Force squad on Wednesday).

Round 12 saw the decisive battle Gelfand – Fridman. Boris played well with the White pieces, building step by step a winning position. But at the critical moment he miscalculated, squandered his advantage and almost lost. The game ended in a draw, and this left Fridman a point clear of second place (Judit lost again). He needed only a draw in the last round, playing White vs. Judit – which was indeed achieved, but only after a tense struggle. Meanwhile Boris was beating Emil Sutovsky, but it didn’t suffice for the gold.

Final Standings

Fridman 9.5; Gelfand 9; J. Polgar 8; Eljanov 7; Rodshtein, Roiz 6; Smirin, Nepomniaschi 5.5; Sutovsky, Najer 5; Golod, Beliavsky 4; Avrukh 3.5.