7th and 8th rounds of Corus Chess Festival held on January 23 and 24 in the Dutch city of Wijk aan Zee. Armenian grandmaster Varuzhan Akobian in the 7th round met with Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (Romania) and played a draw, while in the 8th round he lost to Dmitry Reiderman (Netherlands). After the 8th round Akobian with 2 points still ranks last, and 16-year-old Anish Giri (The Netherlands) is the leader of the tournament “B”.

Varuzhan Akobian (born November 19, 1983) is an American Grandmaster of chess, originally from Armenia, who now resides in Los Angeles.

He became an International Master at age 16. In 2001, he moved to the United States and one week after his 20th birthday in November, 2003, earned the title of Grandmaster.

Akobian won the World Open tournament in Philadelphia on three separate occasions; he shared first place in 2002 and won it outright in 2004 and 2007. In 2006 he tied for first in the San Marino tournament with a performance rating of 2796.

He played on the bronze medal winning USA team in the 2006 and 2008 Chess Olympiads.
In 2007, Akobian came equal first in the American Continental Championship in Cali, Colombia. This qualified him for the Chess World Cup 2007, where he was eliminated in the first round.

As of November 2009, he is the sixth highest rated player in the USA, with a rating of 2624.

In 2007, Akobian was featured on MTV's True Life documentary series, in an episode titled "I'm a Genius".

Corus Chess 2010, the 72nd Corus Chess tournament is held from 15 January - 31 January 2010 in Wijk aan Zee.