Archive for March 20th, 2009

Levon Aronian, last year’s winner, beat the two “kids”, Magnus Carlsen in round five and Sergey Karkjakin in round six, each time with 1½–½ point. Vishy Anand scored a 2-0 victory over Teimour Radjabov to catch Kramnik in second place. Carlsen and Morozevich follow half a point behind. We bring you new impressions from Nice by our illustrious photo reporter GM Dr John Nunn.

The tiebreak for the title in St Petersburg was won by Russian IM Tatiana Kosintseva, who beat her Armenian rival IM Lilit Mkrtchian 1½–½. There was also a seven-player tiebreak for bronze, which was won by WGM Natalija Pogonina of Russia. And finally a playoff for the 14th place in the next World Championship, which was taken by the Ukrainian IM Mariya Muzychuk. Report and games.

IM Lilit Mkrtchian from Armenia and IM Tatiana Kosintseva from Russia both won their final round game to share first in Saint Petersburg. Tomorrow a tiebreak match will decide who takes the title. There are also matches for bronze (seven players shared third) and for a place in the World Championship. New videos by Europe Echecs and a giant portrait pictorial by Elena Mikheeva.