A six way tie for 1st at the Russian Championship resulted in a play-off win for Dmitry Andreikin (4/5). Karjakin took second and Svidler third. Natalia Pogonina won the concurrent Women's Championship.

Alexander Ipatov (Turkey) took the Gold medal on tie-break over Richard Rapport (Hungary) at the World Junior. Ipatov left the Ukraine several years ago and has fairly recently settled in Turkey. Rapport was in the news a few years ago as being the 5th youngest GM in history. Ding Liren (China) who was top ranked had to settle for bronze.

Canadian IM Eric Hansen, started slow, but had a blistering second half to finish tied for 5th - one of Canada's best results, ever. IM norms were scored by FM's Aman Hambleton and Shiyam Thavandiran.

The Canadian Closed was won by GM Bator Sambuev, who finished with a record of 8.5/9 (and must have toyed with the idea of going for the clean slate, before agreeing to a ninth round draw). GM Anton Kovalyov took second place. Not-quite 14 year old Richard Wang took the IM title after a play-off with Nikita Gusev. Natalia Khoudgarian also went 8.5/9 to capture the Women's Championship. Second place was shared by Myraim Roy and Lali Agbabishvili. It hasn't been announced yet if either player will take the IM title, as withdrawals and forfeited games complicated the possible awarding of a title. Bator now competes in the 2013 World Cup and Natalia moves on to the 2012 Women's World Championship.

Legends in the News: These stories are all over the major news sites:
1) Svetozar Gligoric passes away at 89
2) Boris Spassky flees France for Moscow in fear of his safety
3) Garry Kasparov arrested in Moscow for defending free speech