JOHN CORNELISSE of the Netherlands sprang the first major shock of this year’s Intertrust Guernsey International Chess Festival by achieving a draw against the tournament’s top seed, grandmaster Sarunas Sulskis.

Until early evening, the third round had progressed in very similar fashion to the first two, with grandmasters Tiger Hillarp-Persson, Mark Hebden and Nick Pert all seeing off strong amateur opposition and grandmaster Sulskis (pictured) engaged in the only game still in progress.

However, unlike on the previous two nights, the Lithuanian virtuoso was not able to dictate the final phase of the game and it became clear that Cornelisse had earned the distinction of drawing against a grandmaster.

Hebden, Pert and Hillarp-Persson are now the only remaining players with a 100% record in the Open Tournament and today’s fixtures will bring the big guns together for the first time this year.

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