Ponomariov Leads Ukrainian Championships
After five completed rounds of the 80th Ukrainian Chess Championships, Ruslan Ponomariov (pictured) leads by a full point with a score of 4/5.
The 2011 competition in Kiev is the strongest Ukrainian championships for many years, and includes all the best Ukrainian players except Vassily Ivanchuk who is playing in the Bazna Kings tournament in Romania.
Games start every day at 15:00 local time (12:00 UTC) except the final round which is 3 hours earlier. The only rest day is 16 June, and the time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 minutes extra to finish with an increment of 30 seconds/move from the start.
The total prize fund is 600,000 Ukrainian Hryvnias (approx 75,000 US Dollars).
The official website (in Ukrainian) is here, and the live games broadcast can be followed here. Information in English can be found at the tournament's Facebook page.
The standings after five rounds:
| Ponomariov, Ruslan | 2754 | 4 |
| Eljanov, Pavel | 2712 | 3 |
| Areshchenko, Alexander | 2694 | 3 |
| Kryvoruchko, Yuriy | 2640 | 3 |
| Efimenko, Zahar | 2701 | 3 |
| Volokitin, Andrei | 2677 | 2½ |
| Moiseenko, Alexander | 2679 | 2½ |
| Miroshnichenko, Evgenij | 2651 | 2½ |
| Vysochin, Spartak | 2529 | 2½ |
| Kovchan, Alexander | 2558 | 2 |
| Korobov, Anton | 2660 | 1 |
| Vovk, Yuri | 2550 | 1 |
Ponomariov starts his fifth round game with Vovk (see game below)
