A Feast of Black Wins in Poikovsky!

Dmitry Jakovenko takes sole lead by beating Alexander Motylev, whereas Alexander Riazantsev loses an exciting battle against Sergey Karjakin.
Karjakin thus overtakes his opponent and is in second place alone.
There were some mouthwatering games today with Black getting the upper hand in three of them.

Riazantsev played in aggressive style by sacrificing first a pawn and then a piece in order to chase Black's king. Karjakin was however able to walk his monarch across, and then up the board, and his king eventually became a powerful piece. A fascinating tussle, and yet another entertaining display from Riazantsev.

Dmitry Jakovenko was involved in a double-edged struggle against Motylev who provoked some complications that proved to be unsound for him.

Sergei Rublevsky and Ivan Sokolov had a lively line in the Scotch Mieses where Sokolov was able to advance his d-pawn until it cost the Russian a piece.

Rublevsky's second loss with White.

Baadur Jobava	Georgia	2715	0.5-0.5	Arkadij Naiditsch	Germany	2686
Alexander Onischuk	USA	2699	0.5-0.5	Nikita Vitiugov	Russia	2707
Alexander Riazantsev	Russia	2674	0-1	Sergey Karjakin	Russia	2739
Emil Sutovsky	Israel	2661	0.5-0.5	Victor Bologan	Moldavia	2668
Sergei Rublevsky	Russia	2704	0-1	Ivan Sokolov	Bosnia-Herzegovina	2654
Alexander Motylev	Russia	2704	0-1	Dmitry Jakovenko	Russia	2725

Jakovenko must be happy about his situation, but Karjakin probably still has aspirations about winning the tournament.

The leader shares a joke @ official site

Three players are on positive scores, Jakovenko on +3, Karjakin on +2 and Riazantsev on +1. After that five players are on 50%.

Position	Name	Country	Rating	World ranking	Age	Points after eight rounds
1st	Dmitry Jakovenko	RUS	2725	21	26	5.5
2nd	Sergey Karjakin	RUS	2739	14	20	5
3rd	Alexander Riazantsev	RUS	2674	58	24	4.5
4th-8th	Baadur Jobava	GEO	2715	26	26	4
4th-8th	Nikita Vitiugov	RUS	2707	32	23	4
4th-8th	Arkadij Naiditsch	GER	2686	47	24	4
4th-8th	Victor Bologan	MDA	2668	64	38	4
4th-8th	Emil Sutovsky	ISR	2661	75	32	4
9th-10th	Alexander Onischuk	USA	2699	38	34	3.5
9th-10th	Ivan Sokolov	BIH	2654	83	41	3.5
11th-12th	Alexander Motylev	RUS	2704	34	30	3
11th-12th	Sergei Rublevsky	RUS	2704	33	35	3

With three rounds to go the eventual winner will almost certainly come from the leading three players.

You can follow the games live on Live games

You may also like to investigate the following site Chesspro However it is in Russian!

A rough ride today, but he finished on top @ official site

The ninth round will start tomorrow (Friday) at 10am (London), 11am (Paris) or 3pm (local time).