Critical round 8 top board matchups
| Table | White | Score | Fed. | Rating | Black | Score | Fed. | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM Eljanov, Pavel | 5.5 | UKR | 2690 | GM Bartel, Mateusz | 5.5 | POL | 2658 |
| 2 | GM Iordachescu, Viorel | 5.0 | MDA | 2651 | GM Korobov, Anton | 5.0 | UKR | 2660 |
| 3 | GM Tomashevsky, Evgeny | 4.5 | RUS | 2740 | GM Melkumyan, Hrant | 5.0 | ARM | 2620 |
| 4 | GM Caruana, Fabiano | 4.5 | ITA | 2736 | GM Socko, Bartosz | 4.5 | POL | 2636 |
| 5 | GM Rodshtein, Maxim | 4.5 | ISR | 2634 | GM Jobava, Baadur | 4.5 | GEO | 2704 |
| 6 | GM Gajewski, Grzegorz | 4.5 | POL | 2616 | GM Andreikin, Dmitry | 4.5 | RUS | 2688 |
| 7 | GM Popov, Ivan | 4.5 | RUS | 2599 | GM Alekseev, Evgeny | 4.5 | RUS | 2670 |
| 8 | GM Bu, Xiangzhi | 4.5 | CHN | 2670 | GM Zhou, Jianchao | 4.5 | CHN | 2619 |
| 9 | GM Khalifman, Alexander | 4.5 | RUS | 2632 | GM Zhigalko, Sergei | 4.5 | BLR | 2658 |
| 10 | GM Fedoseev, Vladimir | 4.5 | RUS | 2525 | GM Sokolov, Ivan | 4.5 | NED | 2641 |
| 11 | IM Grigoryan, Karen H. | 4.5 | ARM | 2482 | GM Safarli, Eltaj | 4.5 | AZE | 2638 |
Full pairings here: http://www.aeroflotchess.org/tournaments/A/
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
In regards to the picture: Is this the kind of “street performers” they have in Russia – political figures debating ideologies? We should probably take a dozen or so of the street people from Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard and send them over there to lighten the mood a little!