Leaders with 1 round to go:
| 1. | Nyzhnyk, Illya | 6.5 | 38.0 | 30.25 | 30.5 | 2494 | 2702 | +2.09 |
| 2. | Reinderman, Dimitri | 6.0 | 42.0 | 30.75 | 31.0 | 2575 | 2669 | +1.00 |
| Werle, Jan | 6.0 | 42.0 | 30.00 | 29.0 | 2565 | 2686 | +1.25 | |
| Deviatkin, Andrei | 6.0 | 32.5 | 24.50 | 23.0 | 2608 | 2573 | -0.16 | |
| 5. | Chadaev, Nikolai | 5.5 | 39.5 | 24.25 | 26.0 | 2567 | 2551 | -0.02 |
| Greenfeld, Alon | 5.5 | 38.0 | 24.25 | 26.0 | 2559 | 2572 | +0.22 | |
| Nijboer, Friso | 5.5 | 37.5 | 24.00 | 26.5 | 2561 | 2554 | -0.01 | |
| Baklan, Vladimir | 5.5 | 35.5 | 24.25 | 24.0 | 2655 | 2546 | -0.93 | |
| Giri, Anish | 5.5 | 35.0 | 23.00 | 26.0 | 2585 | 2585 | +0.07 | |
| Brandenburg, Daan | 5.5 | 34.5 | 23.50 | 26.0 | 2481 | 2575 | +1.11 |
Official website: http://www.schaakstadgroningen.nl
I have to double check but I believe this might be the final GM norm for 13 year old Illya Nyzhnyk.
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
If he gets his final norm in this event and his rating goes beyond 2500 (which is certain), he will be the second-youngest GM ever at almost exactly 13 years, 3 months. That’s less than 1 month younger than Negi and Carlsen.
Have you seen this kid? He seems even younger than 13. I can’t remember to walk around with teddy bears at that age.
I read on Wiki (not sure about it…), that too much time elapsed between his two first GM norms, so the first one doesn’t count any more (?).
But Illya will be GM soon.
Great performance, in rounds 7 and 9 he beat two strong GM´s in a Slav with 3.Nf3, 4.Qc2 and fianchetto!?
Great performance by Ilya!
To much time passed between the norms? That’s the joke of 2009!
The kid is 13; his first norm must have been when he was hardly out of the dipers.