Photo by Amruta Mokal / ChessBase India

And what a champion he is! The unstoppable Maghsoodloo pulled off his trick again and simply outclassed his strong opponent to win the championship with a round to spare. It wouldn’t even matter if there were two more rounds actually since with 9,5 points he is two full points ahead of his closest followers. Time to call him the “Maghician from Persia” perhaps? Anyway it’s sure that we’re facing a big talent here and he’s definitely one of the main candidates in the world now to enter the superelite in near future. Even Carlsen himself would find it not so easy to match or surpass Maghsoodloo’s score in this championship. A proud moment for Maghsoodloo and his country Iran. Although the coach Ivan Sokolov predicted that 2020 will be the year of Iranian National Team, perhaps even this year in Batumi Maghsoodloo & co. will compete for top places!

The fight for second and third places is still on however in the open section. There are six players with 7,5 points and another six with 7 so we can expect some great fights on top boards tomorrow. If we look at the pairings, from players with 7,5 points Esipenko has a tough job playing against the champion while his countryman Lobanov has perhaps a relatively easier but again very strong opponent: Christiansen from Norway. Hakobyan will play against Indian grandmaster Puranik and another Armenian GM Martirosyan will have the task of playing black against China’s only hope for medals: Bai Jinshi. Firouzja- Narayanan, Vavulin-Tabatabaei and Donchenko – Pichot matchups might also become important if there are draws on the games of players with 7,5 points.

In the girls section however everything remains unclear. The fourth seed Tokhirjonova won her fourth game in a row today and is now the sole leader with 8 points. A great run by the Uzbek player after a slow start, worthy of Usain Bolt. The Russian trio, Maltsevskaya, Dordzhieva and Assaubayeva, are following her at a close distance with 7,5 points and if Dordzhieva can win -or at least make draw- against Tokhirjonova we might even see an all Russian podium! Also 8 players are at 7 points (Zhu, Tsolakidou, Potapova, Varshini, Nomin-Erdene, Nurgali, Khomeriki, Paramzina) and if the Russians with 7,5 points lose their games tomorrow they will have the chance to become second or third. Lots of excitement seems to be waiting for us tomorrow morning!

The last round will start on September 15 at 10.00. Stay tuned for an entertaining final round and live commentary of IM Ekaterina Atalık & FM Tarik Selbes!