Antonio, Hamdani share lead

JAKARTA (JP): GM Rogelio Antonio of the Philippines and NM Hamdani Rudin shared the lead at the Bali Jeff-RCA Grand Master Chess Tournament Friday, each with 5.5 points.

Hamdani again scored a victory in the sixth round by defeating his counterpart NM Tommy Supriyanto in the 28th move of the French opening.

With this victory, Hamdani scored 5.5 victory points, the same as Antonio who only drew with IM Danny Juswanto in the 18th move of the Queen's Pawn opening.

GM Edhi Handoko had to struggle hard before outwitting his junior NM Maksum Firdaus in the 65th move of the Sicilian opening.

NM Kifly Tunasly, who won his first victory Thursday against Tommy, suffered another defeat by GM Ardiansyah.

Filipino IM Nelson Mariano continued his supremacy by overcoming IM Nasib Ginting in the 34th move of the Sicilian opening.

Other results:

IM Bobby Kurniawan vs FM Irwanto 1-0, IM Tu Hoang Thong (Vietnam) vs IM Ruben Gunawan 1/2-1/2, IM Cerdas Barus vs IM Salor Sitanggang 1-0.

Rankings: Antonio and Hamdani 5.5 VP, Edhi, Cerdas, Bobby and Ruben 5 VP, Danny and Hoang Thong 4.5 VP, Nasib and Mariano 4 VP, Ardiansyah 3.5 VP, Irwanto 2.5 VP, Maksum, Salor 2.0 VP, Tommy 1.5 VP and Kifly 1.0 VP. (lnt)