1. Ruslan Ponomariov made a very good impression on the audience in St. Louis during his recent match with Hikaru Nakamura, and so we, in conjunction with his many fans in Ukraine and elsewhere are pleased to see his success in the Ukranian Championship. Going into the last round he was in first, but by only half a point and facing his nearest challenger with the black pieces. He won that game, against Alexander Moiseenko, and took an undefeated clear first with 8.5/11. His TPR of 2852 pushed his rating to 2764 (and change), bringing him to #10 in the world, only 5.3 more rating points from taking over the 6th spot.
Pavel Eljanov finished a point behind at 7.5, and was also undefeated. Zahar Efimenko was undefeated as well at 7, tied with Moiseenko (whose only loss was to Ponomariov) for 3rd/4th.
2. The Russian Championhip Semi-Finals/Qualifier/"Higher League" has had some hop-scotching at the top. First Najer lead, then Sjugirov, and with a win over Sjugirov (with Black) in round 7 Artyom Timofeev is now leading with 5.5 points. Sjugirov, Galkin, and (in a rare tournament appearance these days) Morozevich have 5. 12 others are on 4.5, so there's plenty of jockeying for position yet to come in the final four rounds.
3. The US Junior Championship: Gregory Young was finally stopped in round 5, and is now "only" tied for first at 4-1 with Daniel Naroditsky; four players are a point behind with four rounds to play.