Reply #9: Update (Thursday): Twelve tied for first in Aix-les-Bains after nine rounds

[Jack Rabbit]

Xtrasystole, Wikipedia (Creative Commons License, Attribution/Share Alike)

Twelve players are tied for first place with 7 points apiece in the European Championship in Aix-les-Bains after the completion of today's ninth round.

Six players started the day tied for first place with 6½ points each: Viorel Iordachescu (Maldavia), Rauf Mamedov (Azerbaijan), Mircea Parligras (Romania), Vladimir Potkin (Russia), Markus Ragger (Austria) and Nikita Vitiugov (Russia). In the three games on the three top boards today, each player played one other and all three ended in draws, leaving all six with 7 points each.

Eighteen players began the day with 6 points and played each other on the next nine boards. Six of those nine games ended decisively, moving the six winners into a tie for first with the aforementioned six.

They are: Baadur Jobava (Georgia); Ildar Khairullin (Russia); Judit Polgar (Hungary), the world's highest ranking woman chessplayer; Paco Vallejo (Spain); Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Poland); and Sergei Zhigalko (Belarus).

EDIT

Update to the update.

Here are tomorrow's pairings.