Today, Evgeny Romanov became the winner of the Groningen Chess Festival with a full point lead: 7½ out of 9. Against Panda Sambit he had a tough job initially, but eventually he managed to secure victory. In the meantime, his greatest rival, Valery Kazakouski, had blundered in a good position against the revelation of the tournament, Nikola Kanov. This win put the sixteen-year-old Bulgarian in shared second place and also yielded him an IM-norm. The same went for the Chinese Jin Yueheng, who is even one year younger. He beat Irina Bulmaga today. Kazakouski also ended on 6½ points, just like the Israeli grandmaster Ori Kobo who defeated local hero Eelke de Boer in an extremely wild game. Best players from the city of Groningen were Sergei Tiviakov and Nick Maatman, who both ended on 6 points in shared sixth place with Sambit, Dimitri Reinderman, Pijus Stremavicius from Lithuania and Arthur de Winter.