Croatian grandmaster Bojan Kurajica, who is playing in the Guernsey festival for the first time this week, has faced arguably the three best players of all time in Bobby Fischer, Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 0659466)

GUERNSEY players made an exceptionally strong showing in round three of the Fortis International Chess Festival at the Peninsula Hotel.

Leading the way was FIDE master Fred Hamperl, who maintained his perfect record in this year’s event by beating the highly graded Dutchman, Tomas Broek.

Hamperl now holds the joint lead of the open tournament alongside Ivo Timmermans and grandmasters Bojan Kurajica and Tiger Hillarp-Persson.

He is thought to be the first Guernseyman in the festival’s history to retain a share of the lead after three or more rounds of the competition.

‘I felt exhausted [at the end],’ said Hamperl. ‘I knew it was in my scope, but it was a case of doing it and it was my lucky day.’