Twenty-three players will qualify, but there can only be one champion!
Vladimir Potkin stays ahead, but those in the chasing group will probably be needing 2½ out of 4, to be sure of being in the top twenty.
Here are the results from the top twenty boards.
| Board | Seed | Title/Name | Country | Rating | Points | - | Seed | Title/Name | Country | Rating | Points |
| 1 | 43 | GM Potkin Vladimir | RUS | 2653 | 5½ | ½-½ | 21 | GM Volokitin Andrei | UKR | 2677 | 5 |
| 2 | 9 | GM Vallejo Pons Francisco | ESP | 2707 | 5 | ½-½ | 59 | GM Iordachescu Viorel | MDA | 2626 | 5 |
| 3 | 17 | GM Zhigalko Sergei | BLR | 2680 | 5 | ½-½ | 60 | GM Lupulescu Constantin | ROU | 2626 | 5 |
| 4 | 55 | GM Khairullin Ildar | RUS | 2634 | 5 | ½-½ | 27 | GM Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter | ROU | 2673 | 5 |
| 5 | 73 | GM Ragger Markus | AUT | 2614 | 5 | ½-½ | 33 | GM Cheparinov Ivan | BUL | 2664 | 5 |
| 6 | 79 | GM Hammer Jon Ludvig | NOR | 2606 | 5 | ½-½ | 36 | GM Khismatullin Denis | RUS | 2662 | 5 |
| 7 | 87 | GM Parligras Mircea-Emilian | ROU | 2598 | 5 | ½-½ | 40 | GM Feller Sebastien | FRA | 2657 | 5 |
| 8 | 4 | GM Vitiugov Nikita | RUS | 2720 | 4½ | 1-0 | 170 | IM Wirig Anthony | FRA | 2480 | 5 |
| 9 | 7 | GM Wojtaszek Radoslaw | POL | 2711 | 4½ | 1-0 | 56 | GM Hracek Zbynek | CZE | 2631 | 4½ |
| 10 | 58 | GM Safarli Eltaj | AZE | 2628 | 4½ | ½-½ | 10 | GM Dreev Aleksey | RUS | 2697 | 4½ |
| 11 | 26 | GM Moiseenko Alexander | UKR | 2673 | 4½ | 1-0 | 61 | GM Saric Ivan | CRO | 2626 | 4½ |
| 12 | 28 | GM Kobalia Mikhail | RUS | 2672 | 4½ | 1-0 | 68 | GM Beliavsky Alexander G | SLO | 2619 | 4½ |
| 13 | 31 | GM Mamedov Rauf | AZE | 2667 | 4½ | 1-0 | 113 | GM Kovchan Alexander | UKR | 2563 | 4½ |
| 14 | 65 | GM L'ami Erwin | NED | 2623 | 4½ | ½-½ | 34 | GM Zvjaginsev Vadim | RUS | 2663 | 4½ |
| 15 | 97 | GM Guseinov Gadir | AZE | 2584 | 4½ | ½-½ | 44 | GM Gharamian Tigran | FRA | 2650 | 4½ |
| 16 | 104 | GM Jones Gawain C B | ENG | 2578 | 4½ | 0-1 | 46 | GM Korobov Anton | UKR | 2647 | 4½ |
| 17 | 1 | GM Svidler Peter | RUS | 2730 | 4 | 1-0 | 72 | GM Azarov Sergei | BLR | 2615 | 4 |
| 18 | 75 | GM Stevic Hrvoje | CRO | 2611 | 4 | 0-1 | 2 | GM Nepomniachtchi Ian | RUS | 2729 | 4 |
| 19 | 3 | GM Navara David | CZE | 2722 | 4 | 1-0 | 74 | GM Popov Ivan | RUS | 2613 | 4 |
| 20 | 5 | GM Jakovenko Dmitry | RUS | 2718 | 4 | 1-0 | 77 | GM Grigoryan Avetik | ARM | 2608 | 4 |
Some notable participants:
Tomorrow (Tuesday) will be the rest day.
The previous champions:
| Year | Player | Country |
| 2000 | Pavel Tregubov | RUS (FRA) |
| 2001 | Emil Sutovsky | ISR |
| 2002 | Bartolomej Macieja | POL |
| 2003 | Zurab Azmaiparashvili | GEO |
| 2004 | Vassily Ivanchuk | UKR |
| 2005 | Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu | ROM |
| 2006 | Zdenko Kozul | HRV |
| 2007 | Vladislav Tkachiev | KAZ (FRA) |
| 2008 | Sergei Tiviakov | RUS (NED) |
| 2009 | Evgeny Tomashevsky | RUS |
| 2010 | Ian Nepomniachtchi | RUS |
Here are some rules, one of the most controversial being 'Zero Tolerance' for later-comers. One just has to be at the board at the beginning of the round!
The championship is an 11-round Swiss and the rate of play: 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one.
The Prizes:
The first 25 share 113,700 € and there will be 15 special prizes totaling 6 300 € for the best 'performance minus rating' achievements.
| 1 | 20 000 € |
| 2 | 15 000 € |
| 3 | 11 000 € |
| 4 | 8 000 € |
| 5 | 7 000 € |
| 6 | 6 000 € |
| 7 | 5 500 € |
| 8 | 5 000 € |
| 9 | 4 500 € |
| 10 | 4 000 € |
down to 25th (1000 Euros).
The top 'special' prize will be 1 000 €.
Rounds 8 to 11 will be at 3pm (local time) from Wednesday onwards.
For more information go to:Official site
