Rob Bailey took on the fast finishing Patrick Cook with the unusual Bird's Opening. The game quickly become a Dutch with colours reversed. Patrick grabbed a pawn in the early middle game and with it, the iniative. Thereafter, Patrick traded down to a winning pawn ending with ruthless efficiency.

Michael Schreenan played Kevin Perrin in a Sicilian. Kevin sped to a 2 pawn advantage very early, but Michael gained open lines for his rooks and enjoyed continually harassing Black's Queen for quite some time. The material deficit told in the end and Kevin picked up the full point.

Joel Beggs versus Tim Commons was an Alekhine Defence. Tim rode out into strange new territory in a messy looking position with a pawn advantage. The game reached a lively endgame where the mutual threats conviced both players to agree to a draw.

James Eldridge met John Abson and played the venerable Bishop's Opening. The game reached a double rook ending with White having a solid passed pawn. however aggressive pawn play by John backed up by tactical alertness gave him a winning advantage and after a few false starts gained a great win in one of the big upsets of the tournament.

Darren Young versus Simon Feros was postponed, so John Frangakis took the opportunity to play Darren in their postponed round 6 game. Not surprisingly John played his usual Trompovsky, except Darren declined to play Nf6! A long and cautious grind followed, with John eventually prevailing.