Smerdon Draws with GMs

IM David Smerdon moved up to 3 points after 6 games in the 2007 Aeroflot Open 'A2' section. He drew his fifth and sixth round games against grandmasters Sergey Kudrin and Alexei Iljushin respectively.

After his 2/2 start, James Attwood, playing in the 'B' section, struck a bump in the third round when he lost to Sergei Volkov. He then managed to steer back to a win in the fourth but has since lost his last 3 games.

Manuel Weeks is having the worst time among the Australians. The Men's Olympiad captain has so far only collected 2 points from 7 games (4 losses, 2 draws and a win).

Russian grandmaster Stanislav Novikov currently leads the main section (A1) on 5 out of six games of play. Three other Russians - Jakovenko, Alekseev, Tomashevsky plus the Amernian, Minasian - are on 4.5 points.