Dev Soon­dars­ingh con­tin­ued his no­table run in the Knights Chess Club's Open when he held front run­ner Mar­cus Joseph to a draw, set­ting the stage for an ex­cit­ing fin­ish to the tour­na­ment with two more rounds to go.

For­mer na­tion­al cham­pi­on Joseph who had tak­en the lead with a per­fect score af­ter four rounds now has four and a half, the same as FM Frank Yee who he meets in a key sixth round game tonight.

With­in strik­ing dis­tance of the lead­ers, how­ev­er, are three play­ers on four points, Jayson Paul, Sean Per­ry­man and Soon­dars­ingh. Half a point be­hind them are for­mer na­tion­al cham­pi­on An­der­son Gor­don, vet­er­an An­drew Bowles and Daryl Davis.

The pop­u­lar an­nu­al FIDE-rat­ed tour­na­ment, spon­sored by EN­DE­CO (Trinidad) Lim­it­ed, has at­tract­ed a to­tal of 40 play­ers rep­re­sent­ing a cross-sec­tion of the coun­try's chess play­ing com­mu­ni­ty. It car­ries top cash prizes of $1500, $1000 and $7000.

Spe­cial prizes of $200 each will be won by the Best Fe­male play­er, the Best Un­rat­ed, the Best Ju­nior and the Best Un­der 1700 ELO rat­ed play­er.

The sixth round con­tin­ues tonight at RHAND Cred­it Union build­ing, Aber­crom­by Street.