Richard Rapport and Alexander Ipatov successfully defended with black pieces in the 12th round of the World Junior Chess Championship to sign draws against Samvel Ter-Sahakyan and Wei Yi respectively and maintain the joint lead heading into the final day of the competition.
Top seed and reigning China champion Ding Liren finally made a move towards the top of the scoreboard as he defeated the Russian representative Aleksandr Shimanov.
Ding Liren is now sharing the 3rd place with Samvel Ter-Sahakyan and there follow Wei Yi, Yu Yangyi and Nils Grandelius with 8,5 points each.
Top round 13 pairings are GM Ding Liren – GM Rapport Richard, GM Ipatov Alexander – GM Shimanov Aleksandr, GM Zherebukh Yaroslav – GM Ter-Sahakyan Samvel, GM Grandelius Nils – FM Wei Yi and GM Van Kampen Robin – GM Yu Yangyi. Full pairings here. The last round starts at 11:00 local time, closing ceremony is at 19:00.
Leaders after 12 rounds
| Rk | Name | Rtg | FED | Pts | Ra | Rp | |
| 1 | GM | Ipatov Alexander | 2577 | TUR | 9½ | 2506 | 2736 |
| 2 | GM | Rapport Richard | 2605 | HUN | 9½ | 2470 | 2700 |
| 3 | GM | Ding Liren | 2695 | CHN | 9 | 2491 | 2684 |
| 4 | GM | Ter-Sahakyan Samvel | 2567 | ARM | 9 | 2486 | 2679 |
| 5 | FM | Wei Yi | 2418 | CHN | 8½ | 2498 | 2656 |
| 6 | GM | Yu Yangyi | 2635 | CHN | 8½ | 2514 | 2672 |
| 7 | GM | Grandelius Nils | 2562 | SWE | 8½ | 2474 | 2632 |
| 8 | GM | Shimanov Aleksandr | 2596 | RUS | 8 | 2485 | 2610 |
| 9 | IM | Grover Sahaj | 2516 | IND | 8 | 2452 | 2577 |
| 10 | GM | Cori Jorge | 2487 | PER | 8 | 2453 | 2578 |
| 11 | GM | Zherebukh Yaroslav | 2629 | UKR | 8 | 2419 | 2542 |
| 12 | GM | Van Kampen Robin | 2565 | NED | 8 | 2412 | 2507 |
| 13 | IM | Indjic Aleksandar | 2481 | SRB | 8 | 2392 | 2517 |
| 14 | GM | Huschenbeth Niclas | 2532 | GER | 8 | 2398 | 2523 |
| 15 | IM | Heimann Andreas | 2493 | GER | 8 | 2372 | 2497 |
| 16 | IM | Hansen Eric | 2472 | CAN | 8 | 2356 | 2481 |
Full standings here: http://wjcc2012.chessdom.com/standings-open/
This is crazy. Anything can happen.