The last round of the 2018 World Junior Championship starts in three hours or so, but it doesn't matter. (Or rather it does, but not when it comes to identifying the winner.) Iranian GM Parham Maghsoodloo has crushed the field, scoring 9.5/10 to take a two point lead entering the last round. His one draw was against fellow Iranian Alireza Firouzja, and as he was White in an Exchange French that finished in a draw by perpetual check in 33 moves one suspects that he wasn't exactly going all-out for victory. Everyone else bit the dust.
Round 9 was the highlight for U.S. fans. Awonder Liang defeated Firouzja in round 8 and was in clear second entering the ninth round, a point behind Maghsoodloo. Maghsoodloo played a quiet opening with White that allowed Liang to equalize, but it didn't help the American very much. The Iranian star confidently outplayed him, picked up a pawn, and showed fine technique in dispatching his rival.
The race for first is over, but six players have 7.5 points and are competing for spots on the podium: Johnan-Sebastian Christiansen of Norway, Aram Hakobyan of Armenia, Abhimanyu Puranik of India, Andrey Esipenko of Russia (who has White against Maghsoodloo in the last round), Jinshi Bai of China (you might remember him as the loser of Ding Liren's "immortal" game last year), and Russian Sergei Lobanov.
Congrats to Maghsoodloo, who is only 18 (and that only as of a month ago) and (thanks to this tournament) nearing 2700.