In round four France won yet another giant clash. On Tuesday they beat Germany 2,5-1,5 to move into sole lead, and the one to seal their victory was again unstoppable GM Fressinet. Seeds 19, Switzerland, found themselves in the nose suddenly and fought hard only to lose modestly vs Israel. Van Wely's nice win over Akopian (a +2700!) and three draws paved Holland's way to a victory over Armenia. Sweden lost yet another battle and fell down the table. Poland recovered hammering Croatia 3,5-0,5 - the highest result of the day among top teams. Ukraine and Russia, the teams that were doing badly last days, ran over Sweden "C" and Scotland respectively with a steamrolling 4-0. Poor Scotland, yesterday they lost to Ukraine only to find Russia as their next opponents!

Women's section saw sensational Romania destroying Russia 3-1(Peptan-Kosteniuk 1-0) which is by far the biggest sensation of the event since Russia had no less than 100 ELOs advantage on average at each board! Georgia halved with France (Skripchenko-Chiburdanidze draw) and Poland moved into second position defeating Greece 3-1. Bulgaria shot Croatia (poor Croatia today) dead with a clear 4-0 while Hungary had another bad day barely drawing with Lithuania (no drawn games though!)

Standings
Men: France - 8; Azerbaijan, Israel, Netherlands - 7; Ukraine, Czech Republic, Poland, Sweden "B", Germany - 6
Women: Romania - 8; Poland - 7; Bulgaria, Russia, Georgia - 6

Please don't forget these links:

http://www.goteborgchess2005.se - Championship Official page. Includes results, games, photos, comments and more.
http://schach.wienerzeitung.at/asp/turniereET.asp?tnr=2498&lan=1 - Official results page. Includes detailed results, rankings, statistics.
http://www.chessbase.com - daily reports with results, photos and links, including IM Aagaard's daily audio analyses in the Broadcast room at Playchess (available for guest users as well!)

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY

Fressinet (FRA, 2627) - Graf (GER, 2605)
Series of subtle manoeuvres, so typical for Breyer line in Ruy Lopez led White to obvious positional advantage. White Queen infiltrated sixth rank and black fields are weakened for Black. The final is not very close yet, though 42. Nc6! threatening the Rook and the Knight, which serves as major defender 42. ... Nxc6?? loses at once. Now White conducts quick and effective attack 43. Rxf7! Rxf7 44. Qxg6+ Rg7 45. Qxe8+ Kh7 46. e5+ resigns. Well done again, Laurent!


Van Wely (NED, 2655) - Akopian (ARM, 2705)
The game was decisive as the rest were either drawn or heading towards a draw. Black is squeezed and quite passive, but since d6 is his only weakness he should recover from it, had he only thought about defence... But perhaps Akopian decided to conduct a counter-attack. 23. ... f5? seemingly releases the tension but who says White must take the challenge? Of course gxf6 e.p. Nxf6 works fine for Black, but if White does not take the pawn it becomes clear that now both d6 and e6 became weak pawns. 24. e4! Rf8 of course fxe4 Nxe4 cost Black a pawn, but this move is no better for him 25. exf5 Rxf5 if exf5 then Nd5 wins 26. Ne4 e5 27. Nxd6 Bxd6 28. Rxd6 exf4 29. Rf1 +- White has huge positional advantage and an extra pawn (f4 is dead). He soon converted it into a win.


Wojtaszek (POL, 2591) - Palac (CRO, 2566)
This was really black day for the Croatians. Of 8 games played today they lost 7! Palac's game vs newly created Polish champion was no exception. See the diagram position. White has clear positional advantage but he is two pawns down. This usually leads to a draw... 31. Rxh6+! this is a pseudo sacrifice. Taking a Rook loses immediately after Qxh6+ Kg8 Rh1 with mate (or winning a Queen) 31. ... Kg8 32. Qc7 Rdxd7 33. Qc8+ Bf8?? Simple Rf8 refuted all the threats and led to a drawn enging 34. Rhd6!! resigns. Black Bishop is pinned and cannot take the Rook, and the black Rook cannot leave black Queen unprotected. White wins the Rook...


McShane (ENG, 2625) - Damljanovic (YUG, 2612)
What has considerable advantage (more active pieces and an extra pawn - though doubled) but it is not easy to convert it into a win. However, greediness rarely pays the rent: 32. ... Qxb2?? 33. Rh8+! Kxh8 34. Qh4+ resigns. Rh7 loses after Qxd8+ Kg8 Rg1+ and Kg8 loses after Qxd8+ Kh7 Qh4+ Kg8 Re8#. The d8-h4 diagonal proved crucial here!