Croatia is a sole leader in the open section afrer round III. We could have observe very exciting games on all the boards. After a long fight, Croatian players managed to beat Hungary 2,5-1,5. Germany convincingly won against Czech Republic 3,5-0,5. They are now clearly second with two victories and one draw. Another important match between Turkey and Israel finished with all draws, giving both teams a shared 3rd - 10th place together with Ukraine, Hungary, Moldova, Serbia, Poland and Poland IV.
Below two interesting positions. The top board of the top match:
IM Livaic, Leon 2464 (CRO) - FM Matviishen, Viktor 2433 (UKR)
1.e6! fxe6 (gxf4 loses to exf7+ followed by Qh5x) 2. Qxe6+ Kh8 3. Bd6 1-0
The longest game of the round:
Nayhebaver, Martin 2451 (SVK) - IM Kantor, Gergely 2479 (HUN)
Black is pawn up, but with less than one minute on the clock it's not easy win. Hungarian player has found the best way:
1...Ne5+ 2.Kf5 The point is white can't play 2.Kxg5 due to Nf3+! 3.Nxf3 c2 -+ 2...g4 3.Kf4 Nd3+ 4.Ke3 Nxb4 5.Nxb5 c2 6.Kd2 g3 7.Nd4 g2 0-1
The third round in girls section was expected to appoint the sole leader – two co-leaders from Ukraine and Estonia have played together. The match was very tense and after some time it seemed that the draw will be achieved. Suddenly, M. Olde - playing on the board 2 – has made few inproper moves and the position turned out to be lost:
Margareth Olde (EST) – Sofiya Krasnokutskaya (UKR)
1.h4?! The beginning of a wrong plan. White should have played 1. f5!? With a small advantage. Now white queen will start to suffocate - 1...Nf6 2.f5 gxf5 3.Qxf5 Ng4 4.Rxe8+?? A decisive mistake. White was obliged to play 4.Ne7! 4...Rxe8 and out of blue White lose an exchange and the position is hopeless. 5.Kh3 Ne3 6.Re1 Qxg3+! The most precise move. 7.Kxg3 Nxf5+ 8.Kf2 Rxe1 9.Kxe1 Kg7! Exactly that way – Black activates the king and position is already easy. 10.Kd2 Kf6–+ and after few moves White has resigned. 0-1
After this victory, Ukrainian team has 6 matchpoints (and 100% result on boards) and is a sole leader, one matchpoint above the second Slovenia, which has won 1,5-0,5 against Serbia. Tomorrow above-mentioned teams will play on the first board. The 3rd place is shared by 6 teams (Estonia, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia, Poland II and Turkey II). After tomorrows round we will be already after the half of the tournament and so we will be much closer to predict who will win the medals.
Quite nice game was won by the Polish player Julia Antolak:
Lilla Kassay (HUN) – Julia Antolak (POL II)
Black has gained a nice position after the opening. The question is – how should Black improve this advantage? The Polish player has found a proper answer for that question and has played 1...a5! Exactly, all White pieces are tied to e5 pawn defence and so Black seeks for other weaknesses. 2.c3 a4 3.Qf4 Qf2! Enter of dragon – the queen will bring a disharmony into White's camp. 4.Qb4 Rd3 R:f3 is a threat. 5.Rg1 Rxf3! 6.Qxb5 6.gxf3 does not help at all - Qxf3+ 7.Kh2 (7.Rg2 Qf1+ and now White is hopeless 8.Kh2 (8.Rg1 Qxh3#) 8...Bxe5+ 9.Rg3 Qf2+–+) 7... Bxe5+ 6...Rf5 7.Qxa4 Bxe5 8.Qg4 Qxb2 9.Rd1 Qxc3 10.Qh4 Kg7 11.Rg1 Qg3 0-1
