As time goes by, the lower rated players tend to be pushed aside by the top seeds making their way towards the front of the peloton.
So it's perhaps no surprise that after five rounds, the leading 27 players were all Grandmasters, 3 being over 2700, 18 in the 2600s and only six in the 2500s.
In terms of nationalities there were seven Russians within half-a-point of the lead.
In the following table the majority of the players had four points before today's sixth round. The exceptions being the top two boards and Motylev (on 3.5) who floated up.
1 | GM | Artyom Timofeev (4.5) | RUS | 2655 | 0-1 | GM | Baadur Jobava (4.5) | GEO | 2695 |
2 | GM | Zahar Efimenko (4.5) | UKR | 2640 | 1-0 | GM | Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (4.5) | ROU | 2661 |
3 | GM | Emil Sutovsky | ISR | 2650 | 0-1 | GM | Zoltan Almasi | HUN | 2720 |
4 | GM | Francisco Vallejo Pons | ESP | 2708 | 0.5-0.5 | GM | Vadim Zvjaginsev | RUS | 2643 |
5 | GM | Michael Adams | ENG | 2704 | 0.5-0.5 | GM | Ivan Sokolov | BIH | 2638 |
6 | GM | Arkadij Naiditsch | GER | 2691 | 0-1 | GM | Bojan Vuckovic | SRB | 2630 |
7 | GM | Igor Kurnosov | RUS | 2674 | 0.5-0.5 | GM | Viorel Iordachescu | MDA | 2621 |
8 | GM | Rauf Mamedov | AZE | 2639 | 1-0 | GM | Alexander Areshchenko | UKR | 2670 |
9 | GM | Constantin Lupulescu | ROU | 2598 | 0.5-0.5 | GM | Kiril Georgiev | BUL | 2669 |
10 | GM | Emanuel Berg | SWE | 2594 | 0.5-0.5 | GM | Ernesto Inarkiev | RUS | 2667 |
11 | GM | Alexander Riazantsev | RUS | 2660 | 1-0 | GM | Samvel Ter-Sahakyan | ARM | 2513 |
12 | GM | Gergely-Andras-Gyula Szabo | ROU | 2525 | 0.5-0.5 | GM | Denis Khismatullin | RUS | 2657 |
13 | GM | Ian Nepomniachtchi | RUS | 2656 | 1-0 | GM | Hrant Melkumyan | ARM | 2582 |
14 | GM | Alexander Motylev (3.5) | RUS | 2705 | 1-0 | GM | Nikita Maiorov | BLR | 2510 |
As the table demonstrates, decisive results on the top two boards leaves Efimenko (Ukraine) and Jobava (Georgia) ahead on 5.5/6. The players on five points are Almasi (Hungary), Vuckovic (Serbia), Rauf Mamedov (Azerbaijan) and then a couple of Russians Riazantsev and Nepomniachtchi.
In the Women's standings after five rounds four of the top fourteen are rated more than 2500.
In the table below, three players had 4.5 (before today's round), whereas the other 11 had 4/5.
1 | GM | Monika Socko (4.5) | POL | 2465 | 1-0 | GM | Tatiana Kosintseva (4.5) | RUS | 2524 |
2 | GM | Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (4.5) | SCO | 2447 | 0-1 | GM | Antoaneta Stefanova | BUL | 2555 |
3 | IM | Mariya Muzychuk | UKR | 2444 | 0.5-0.5 | IM | Nadezhda Kosintseva | RUS | 2554 |
4 | IM | Ekaterina Kovalevskaya | RUS | 2438 | 0.5-0.5 | IM | Anna Muzychuk | SLO | 2533 |
5 | IM | Viktoija Cmilyte | LTU | 2485 | 1-0 | IM | Svetlana Matveeva | RUS | 2373 |
6 | WGM | Anastasia Savina | RUS | 2391 | 0.5-0.5 | GM | Nana Dzagnidze | GEO | 2479 |
7 | IM | Anna Ushenina | UKR | 2452 | 0-1 | WGM | Lilit Galojan | ARM | 2380 |
The five Russians had a poor day (+0=3-2) and after the round Socko (5.5) leads from Stefanova, Cmilyte and the underdog Galojan, all on 5 and none of whom are Russian!
More information on the official tournament site