Russian Championship. There was lots of excitement there today, but not a lot of happiness for last year's champ and almost-champ. In 2010 Ian Nepomniachtchi and Sergey Karjakin tied for first and had to go to a playoff (won by the former); this year, it's just past the halfway point and they're both probably out of business. Nepomniachtchi had Black against Vladimir Kramnik and repeated the line Alexander Grischuk had used to drive Kramnik and others crazy against the English: 1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.e3 e5. This time, it didn't work, and Kramnik won a nice game, once again playing in an almost hyper-aggressive, sacrificial style.
As for Karjakin, he lost with White against the aforementioned Grischuk. Rook and bishop are generally better than rook and knight, but this game is a fine demonstration that this isn't always the case. White's fragile queenside pawn structure and largely irrelevant bishop (a status it suffered from early in the game) gave Black the better chances, and he showed good technique to grind out the win.
So much for last year's heroes. This year's likeliest champs seem to be Peter Svidler and Alexander Morozevich, both of whom won today. Svidler used the Advance Variation against Alexander Galkin's Caro-Kann to quickly bottle up his pieces, and in due course the executioner prepared the final blow. 37.Bxh5 was a nice shot (37...gxh5 38.Rh3), and the accurate 42.e6! fxe6 43.Qe1 finished things, as the threats of 44.Qxe6+ and especially 44.Rh4 (trapping Black's queen) were too much for Black to cope with.
Morozevich's win over Artyom Timofeev had a different character. Morozevich created lots of pawn weaknesses in Black's camp (11.e6, 14.Nc5 + 15.Nxb7) early on, and like a good investment it paid off down the road. The weaknesses all fell in due course, and White won the ending.
2. World Junior Championship. In round 9 (of 13), the second underdog met his match, and it was once again the Armenian GM Robert Hovhannisyan. In round 8 Hovhannisyan knocked off Italian IM Axel Rombaldoni (who lost again in round 9), and this time it was the overachieving Indian FM Koushik Girish who was toppled. Hovhannisyan has 8 points, and while he's now in clear first his round 10 challenger will be another Armenian! Samvel Ter-Sahakyan is in clear second with 7.5. Darius Swiercz and Girish are in the next score group with 7 points apiece, and will play in round 10, and then there are five players with 6.5, including Rombaldoni and American Ray Robson.
As for the FIDE Women's Grand Prix, there's no news: they're enjoying the last rest day of the tournament.