The leader has been changed two days before the finish of the Moscow Open Men’s Cup of Russia stage. Ranked first so far Urii Eliseev from Moscow lost to Artyom Timofeev in the Round 7 and let him occupy the first place. The grandmaster from Kazan scored 6,5 points.

Anton Korobov (Ukraine), Urii Eliseev and Ernesto Inarkiev (both from Moscow), Gergely Antal (Hungary) are half a step behind the leader. Five chess players scored 5,5 points.

Duel power reigns in the Women’s Cup of Russia stage. The first place is shared between Anastasia Bodnaruk (St. Petersburg) and Veronika Schneider (Hungary), both scored 6 points. In the Round 7 Bodnaruk brought the game with Baira Kovanova (Saratov) to the tie, Schneider outplayed Lilit Galojan (Armenia). 8 participants scored 5,5 points.

The ranking favorites climbed the top of the table in the Veterans’ tournament. The first place is shared between grandmasters Sergey Arkhipov and Evgenii Vasiukov (both from Moscow), international master Evgeny Kalegin (Ufa). They scored 6 of possible 7 points. Eight chess players with half a point less are following the leaders, the grandmaster from Chelyabinsk Evgeniy Sveshnikov is among the chasing group.

There are no participants without a single loss left in the Amateurs’ tournament. Valentin Vlassow and Grigory Malyshev (both from Pskov), Pavel Toropov (Tatarstan) with 6,5 points are sharing the places 1-3. Seven players scored 6 points.

Saturday, Feb 6 the games of the next to last Round 8 of the competitions will be played.