Two Thirds of the Competition is Completed at the Ninth International RSSU Chess Cup Moscow Open 2013. Three Rounds Remain.

In the main tournament of the chess festival - the Russian Cup event for men - two hold the lead following the first six days of the event. They are Russia's Dmitry Kokarev and Pavel Ponkratov, who have 5.5 points each. Today both of them had wins: Kokarev defeating Ildar Ibragimov (USA), while Ponkratov bested Igor Kovalenko (Ukraine). Eleven players are half a point behind the leaders, including the rating-favorites, Russia's Yan Nepomnyaschi and Ildar Kairullin and Azerbaijan's Rauf Mamedov and Gadir Guseinov.

Russia's Marina Romanko remains in the lead at the Women's Open Russian Cup. Today she has achieved her sixth consecutive victory. This time she bested the 2012 student grandmaster champion Nino Batsiashvili (Georgia). 18-year-old Lanita Stetsko from Belarus has 5.5 points. In the sixth round she defeated Katerina Dolzhikova from Ukraine. She is followed by six Russian participants, who have 5 points each: Evgenia Ovod, Lidia Tomnikova, Viktoria Tarasova, Alina Bivol, Olga Ilyushina and Svetlana Shulakova.

Vladimir Belous (Russia) leads in the student grandmaster tournament. In the sixth round he achieved a draw against Burak Firat from Turkey and has 4.5 points in total. Yuri Eliseev and Alexander Shimanov (Russia) have 4 points each. In this round Eliseev defeated Panayapan Sethuraman (India), while Shimanov ended his game against Mikhail Mozharov (Russia) peacefully.

Dinara Sadvakasova confidently lead the field in the women's student grandmaster tournament. In the sixth round she achieved her fourth victory at the tournament by defeating Dina Drozdova (Russia). The Kazakh player has 5 points. Russia's Daria Pustovoitova is currently second. After her today's victory over Karina Szczepkowska-Horowska (Poland) she has 4 points. Olga Girya and Anastasia Savina (both Russia), Anastasia Zezulkina (Belarus) and Enkhtuul Altan-Ulzii (Mongolia) are tied for 3rd to 6th places with 3 points each.

Evgeny Sveshnikov (Latvia) advanced to the leading position in veteran's tournament after the sixth round, with 5.5 points out of 6. In the latest round he defeated the World Champion among veteran women Galina Strutinskaya (Russia). Six players are 0.5 points behind the leader.

In group C - the competition for players who have less than 2300 points in rating - a sole leader appeared. Nikita Khoroshilov has scored six victories. Half a step behind him are Ivan Yudin, Ivan Krylov, Alexander Tchenukhin and Vladislav Tcherepanov. All these players represent Russia.

The seventh round will take place on February 8th.