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GM Friso Nijboer, Stewart Haslinger, and unfancied Alexandr Fier tied for the top spot at Essent, Hoogeveen. Sipke Ernst finished next on 6.5 points. World Junior champion Abhijeet Gupta and runner up Parimarjan Negi, both of India, finished with 6 and 5.5 points respectively. Final Standings Nijboer, Fier, Haslinger 7.0 Ernst 6.5 Spoelman, Gupta, Naumkin, Safarli, Romanishin, L'Ami, Slingerland, and others 6.0

Ivan Sokolov leads with a perfect 3/3 score at the 2008 edition of Essent Hoogeveen. Marie Sebag finally got herself on the points scoreboard by drawing Adly of Egypt. She faces the leader Sokolov in the fourth round. In the Open section, the surprise leader is Alexandr Fier with 5.5 points, 1 point clear of many others at 4.5. Reigning world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta lost to Fier in the 6th round, and is also among the pack with 4.5 points. Veteran Vlastimil Hort is also shining with a creditable show of 4.5 points. Leaders after the 7th round Alexandr Fier 5.5 Erwin L'Ami, Gupta, Nijboer, Pavlovic, Haslinger, Naumkin, Agamaliev, Hort, Spoelman 4.5

The GM Group B is by no means less interesting. There are super Grand Masters, dangerous floaters, and teenagers looking to break through. Bacrot, Cheparinov, Short are very strong and will go all out. Humpy is riding on her successful year 2007. She needs to be watched. In fact Humpy - Yifan is a potential future rivalry. Yifan must have done some serious work the last few months. She's gained heavily in the January ratings list, so lets see if she can put up a fight, even though the opposition is pretty strong for her. Nepomniachtchi and Stellwagen need to be watched carefully. GM Group B GM Etienne Bacrot FRA 2695 GM Gabriel Sargissian ARM 2673 GM Ivan Cheparinov BUL 2670 GM Sergey Movsesian SLK 2670 GM Pentala Harikrishna IND 2668 GM Michal Krasenkow POL 2668 GM Nigel Short ENG 2649 GM Daniel Stellwagen NED 2639 GM Ian Nepomniachtchi RUS 2611 GM Koneru Humpy IND 2606 GM Erwin L’Ami NED 2577 GM Jan Smeets NED 2558 WGM Hou Yifan CHI 2502 IM Wouter Spoelman NED 2445

Five players were tied for the first place at the Groningen Chess Festival. Stelios Halkias won the title on tie-break. The final standings after round 9 in the Harmonie Open A category at Groningen 2007: 1 GM Halkias, Stelios 6.5 GRE 2 GM Mastrovasilis, Dimitrios 6.5 GRE 3 GM Ernst, Sipke 6.5 NED 4 GM Adly, Ahmed 6.5 EGY 5 IM Lobzhanidze, Davit 6.5 GEO 6 GM Banikas, Hristos 6.0 GRE 7 GM Li, Shilong 6.0 CHN 8 IM Hoffmann, Michael 6.0 GER 9 GM Nijboer, Friso 5.5 NED 10 GM Rotstein, Arkadij 5.5 GER 11 IM Swinkels, Robin 5.5 NED 12 IM Pruijssers, Roeland 5.5 NED 13 FM Burg, Twan 5.5 NED 14 GM Reinderman, Dimitri 5.0 NED 15 IM Simutowe, Amon 5.0 ZAM 16 IM Spoelman, Wouter 5.0 NED 17 IM Hendriks, Willy 5.0 NED 18 IM Van Oosterom, Chiel 5.0 NED 19 FM De Jong, Migchiel 5.0 NED 20 FM Clemens, Adrian 5.0 NED