There is only one round left to play. Who is the favorite to win it all? Will the leaders play it safe and allow the next group to catch up?
Round 9 top board pairings
| Table | White | Score | Fed. | Rating | Black | Score | Fed. | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM Korobov, Anton | 6.0 | UKR | 2660 | GM Bartel, Mateusz | 6.0 | POL | 2658 |
| 2 | GM Andreikin, Dmitry | 5.5 | RUS | 2688 | GM Eljanov, Pavel | 6.0 | UKR | 2690 |
| 3 | GM Melkumyan, Hrant | 5.5 | ARM | 2620 | GM Khalifman, Alexander | 5.5 | RUS | 2632 |
| 4 | GM Jobava, Baadur | 5.0 | GEO | 2704 | GM Caruana, Fabiano | 5.5 | ITA | 2736 |
| 5 | GM Safarli, Eltaj | 5.0 | AZE | 2638 | GM Tomashevsky, Evgeny | 5.0 | RUS | 2740 |
| 6 | GM Zvjaginsev, Vadim | 5.0 | RUS | 2688 | GM Rodshtein, Maxim | 5.0 | ISR | 2634 |
| 7 | GM Alekseev, Evgeny | 5.0 | RUS | 2670 | GM Shomoev, Anton | 5.0 | RUS | 2570 |
| 8 | GM Popov, Ivan | 5.0 | RUS | 2599 | GM Bu, Xiangzhi | 5.0 | CHN | 2670 |
| 9 | GM Zhou, Jianchao | 5.0 | CHN | 2619 | GM Ragger, Markus | 5.0 | AUT | 2655 |
| 10 | GM Fedoseev, Vladimir | 5.0 | RUS | 2525 | GM Iordachescu, Viorel | 5.0 | MDA | 2651 |
| 11 | GM Sokolov, Ivan | 5.0 | NED | 2641 | IM Grigoryan, Karen H. | 5.0 | ARM | 2482 |
| 12 | GM Sjugirov, Sanan | 4.5 | RUS | 2622 | GM Sasikiran, Krishnan | 4.5 | IND | 2700 |
| 13 | GM Akopian, Vladimir | 4.5 | ARM | 2685 | GM Gajewski, Grzegorz | 4.5 | POL | 2616 |
| 14 | GM Rakhmanov, Aleksandr | 4.5 | RUS | 2593 | GM Khismatullin, Denis | 4.5 | RUS | 2664 |
| 15 | GM Zhigalko, Sergei | 4.5 | BLR | 2658 | GM Zherebukh, Yaroslav | 4.5 | UKR | 2594 |
| 16 | GM Gupta, Abhijeet | 4.5 | IND | 2652 | GM Zhigalko, Andrey | 4.5 | BLR | 2576 |
| 17 | GM Iturrizaga, Eduardo | 4.5 | VEN | 2649 | GM Tukhaev, Adam | 4.5 | UKR | 2537 |
| 18 | GM Socko, Bartosz | 4.5 | POL | 2636 | GM Ni, Hua | 4.5 | CHN | 2641 |
| 19 | GM Bocharov, Dmitry | 4.0 | RUS | 2611 | GM Nepomniachtchi, Ian | 4.0 | RUS | 2735 |
| 20 | GM Esen, Baris | 4.0 | TUR | 2534 | GM Vallejo Pons, Francisco | 4.0 | ESP | 2705 |
| 21 | IM Yilmaz, Mustafa | 4.0 | TUR | 2521 | GM Kobalia, Mikhail | 4.0 | RUS | 2673 |
| 22 | GM Balogh, Csaba | 4.0 | HUN | 2665 | GM Ponkratov, Pavel | 4.0 | RUS | 2611 |
| 23 | GM Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | 4.0 | ROU | 2647 | GM Grigoriants, Sergey | 4.0 | RUS | 2570 |
| 24 | GM Dubov, Daniil | 4.0 | RUS | 2498 | GM Khairullin, Ildar | 4.0 | RUS | 2638 |
| 25 | GM Robson, Ray | 4.0 | USA | 2596 | GM Mamedov, Rauf | 4.0 | AZE | 2636 |
| 26 | GM Salgado Lopez, Ivan | 4.0 | ESP | 2618 | GM Jumabayev, Rinat | 4.0 | KAZ | 2573 |
| 27 | GM Sethuraman, S.P. | 4.0 | IND | 2529 | GM Le, Quang Liem | 3.5 | VIE | 2714 |
Full pairings here: http://www.aeroflotchess.org/tournaments/A/
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Wow! This is exciting.