2008 Aeroflot

Final standings after Round 9 (Women). Round 9 final standings for the B and C Groups were reported on February 21st. Group A1 (66 players): 32 WGM Hou, Yifan 4.5 CHN 2527 2605 47 IM Sebag, Marie 4.0 FRA 2510 2551 Susan Polgar reported that Hou Yifan earned a GM norm by finishing at 50% with a performance rating of 2605. She finished in very good company: 29 GM Dyachkov, Sergej 4.5 RUS 2559 2613 30 GM Frolyanov, Dmitry 4.5 RUS 2544 2615 31 GM Romanov, Evgeny 4.5 RUS 2543 2613 33 GM Bindrich, Falko 4.5 GER 2497 2591 34 GM Khalifman, Alexander 4.5 RUS 2638 2557 35 GM Lysyj, Igor 4.5 RUS 2593 2521 36 GM Evdokimov, Alexander A. 4.5 RUS 2569 2630 37 IM Safarli, Eltaj 4.5 AZE 2496 2576 38 GM Zhigalko, Andrey 4.5 BLR 2556 2597 39 GM Feller, Sebastien 4.5 FRA 2522 2605 40 GM Iordachescu, Viorel 4.5 MDA 2586 2566 Hou didn't finish in the prize money, which cut off after player 30, but she may have won a special prize for best female finish - I couldn't find any specific information at the Aeroflot website but there are provisions for such prizes in the general regulations. Group A2 (92 players): 29 IM Ovod, Evgenija 5.0 RUS 2386 2532 48 IM Ushenina, Anna 4.5 UKR 2484 2437 53 Ju, Wenjun 4.0 CHN 2360 2435 63 IM Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina 4.0 RUS 2455 2385 75 WGM Mongontuul, Bathuyag 3.5 MGL 2389 2368 78 IM Tairova, Elena 3.0 RUS 2386 2321 91 IM Harika, Dronavalli 2.5 IND 2455 2490 For finishing in 29th place, Ovod won $450 USD. The other ladies finished out of the money. I could not find any news as to why Dronavalli dropped out of the tournament. She did not play in the last four rounds.