Aeroflot Round 8: Cheperinov outplayed Le Quang Liem; join his victim for the lead!

Ivan Cheperinov of Bulgaria ended Le Quang Liem unbeaten record,winning a turbulent Classical Kings Indian in 45 moves. Le Quang Liem playing aggressively open up his king side playing g4 on the 11th move, Le was already quality up on the 23rd moves and poised for another win ,until Cheperinov launch a counter attack on the king side.The hard earned triumphed by Cheperinov vaulted him into the lead
together with his victim with only one round remaining. Draws by nearest pursuer Nikita Vitiugov, Rustam Kazimdzhanov and Rauf Mamedov against Evgeny Tomashevsky, Denis Khismatullin and Yu Yangyi respectively put them one half point behind the two leaders.  Khismatullin and Kazimdzhanov call it a draw in only 11 moves of a Queens Gambit Accepted while theVitiugov-Tomashevky game was drawn in only 15 moves of a Kings Indian Defense . Yu Yangyi and Mamedov takes 42 moves of a Sicilian Dragon for the draw  Biggest gains is made by junior player Sanan Sjugirov and Maxim Rohdstein of Israel as they join the six in second place with 5.5 points.Sjugirov won against Vachier-Lagrave in 46 moves of a Ruy Lopez Opening while Rohdstein beat Zhou Jiangchao of China in 38 moves of a Gruenfeld defense.

In Group B Tigran Kotanjaian and Nikolai Kabanov of Russia shares the lead with 6.5 points. Kotanjian outplayed untitled Vladimir Belous for his fifth victory  3 draws and 0 loss record while Kabanov beat Wen Yang of China also for his fifth victory against 3 draws and no defeat.Russian's Alexei Gavrilov and FM Pogos Nakhapetiane  won against Alexander Shimanov and Bayarsaikhan Gundavaa respectively  to join Darwin Laylo of the Philippines and Dorian Rogozenko of Romania for joint 3rd-6th place. The Laylo-Rogozenko game ended up in a draw.

In Group C The Armenians are dominating the field with 5 Armenians in the top eight positions. 16-years old David Shahinyan of Armenia defeated Tigran Simonian to grab the solo lead with seven points.Simonian dropped to 2nd-3rd place with Artur Gharagyozian also from Armenia with 6.5 points. Five players shares 4th -8th place Sarqis Manukyan(ARM); Vardan Khojayan(ARM); WFM Varvara Repina(RUS) ;Eduard Barsamian(RUS) and Valery Artamov(RUS) all with 6 points. Philippines 13-year old bet Paulo Bersamina led a big group of players with 5.5 points tied for 9th- 19th place. Bersamina is a strong bet for the top junior since the leading junior player David Shahinyan is vying for the major title.