Day five saw the leaders fighting hard to held Holland to a draw. This made it possible for Israel to level on points with the Frenchmen as the Israeli demolished young Azerbaijani team with a cold-blooded 3.5-0.5 Avrukh beat Guseinov nicely (see below) and Gelfand refuted Radjabov's piece sac. Ukraine won yet another important match defeating Germany 3-1 (see both decisive games in the highlights). Poland-Czech Republic was a no-history 2-2. Armenia hit back from yesterday's loss and ran over Serbia 3.5-0.5 to move into joint 5th. Russia had easy run vs Iceland. The Spanish nightmare lasts: 1.5-2.5 vs Finland. Sweden, the hosts, who did so well in the very beginning lost third consecutive match (vs Georgia today, who apart from Azmai and Jobava sent a pack of juniors) - which is almost impossible to recover from in a system where match points decide. Today's hit is the top clash of the day: Israel - France.

In the women's section Poland moved into the nose beating surprising Romania 3-1. Russia demolished France 3.5-0.5 to move into second position. Chiburdanidze-Stefanowa was a draw, same as Georgia-Bulgaria match. Despite GM Peng's win over WGM Zhukova Ukraine managed to beat Holland. 7th seeded Armenian girls fell down to 18th after third consecutive match loss. The Serbians, seeded 6th, have only won two games so far, both of them in the first round!

Standings
Men: Israel and France - 9; Ukraine and Holland - 8; Armenia, Russia, Czech Republic, Poland, Sweden "B", Romania, Azerbaijan - 7
Women: Poland - 9; Russia and Romania - 8; Bulgaria, Georgia and Ukraine - 7

You can now watch games of men's section's rounds 1-5 online in a well known OlimpBase format!
Please find 15th ETCh info page.
(Please note: history statistics are not available yet. Olympic statistics are used instead)

Watch live games of round 6:
Israel-France and Russia-Holland (men)
Ukraine-Azerbaijan and Armenia-Romania (men)
Sweden "B"-Poland (men) and Hungary-Georgia (women)
Poland-Russia and Ukraine-Romania (women)

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY



Avrukh (ISR, 2652) - Guseinov (AZE, 2585)
Avrukh kept pressure all the time but it started to look promising for Black. Simple Bxf4 leads to a better, although probably drawish, ending for Black. Instead young Gadir greedily took the "a" file pawn 36. ... Nxa4?? of course the easy pin try Ra2 fails because of Nb6 but Black forgot that the Rook first of all protects crucial g8 square! 37. Bc6!+- Ra6 38. Bd5! there is no danger of a pin at "a" file but the Rook cannot go back to a8. Now mate threats are impossible for cheap refutation. 38. ... h6 39. Nh4! Kh7 40. Ng6 resigns. His only choice is whether he wants to be mated at h6 or at h8.


Eljanov (UKR, 2639) - Gustafsson (GER, 2614)
The ending is drawish, but the game is not over yet. Of course after 58 moves both players played under serious time pressure. Black's tactics is simple: check often to push white King away of c5 pawn. Once the task is completed white Knight cannot take on f4 because of Kxc5. So... 58. ... Nc2+ 59. Kc4 Ne3+ 60. Ke4 Nf5+ 61. Kc4 move repetition? 61. ... Ne3+ 62. Ke3 now what? 62. ... Nf5?? 63. Nd4+ resigns. After Knight trade the pawn ending is easily won for White. A real drama!


Karjakin (UKR, 2645) - Kritz (GER, 2544)
The position is complex and both sides have all kinds of attacking chances. White threatens Qd6+ with quick mate and Black threatens Rxc2 and Qxf2. Black is on the move. In what way should he protect d6? Nd4 or f6? 47. ... Nd4? wrong choice! 47. ... f6! was the solution. 48. Qe2 Qxc2 49. Qxc2 Rxc2 50. Rxf6 Na5= now he loses quickly 48. Qe3! Ne6 49. Ne2 Qxc2? there was no hope, but now the execution comes immediately 50. Qe5+ Kb7 51. Qd5+ Kc7 52. Rf6!+- A pseudo active move proved very passive in fact.


Lputian (ARM, 2629) - Ivanisevic (YUG, 2577)
Black's action at Queenside has been blocked and White keeps control over the center and the Kingside. Now he polishes the attack off with a very neat trick 26. e4! the idea of this move is to pull black Bishop away from protecting d7. He may choose not to take the pawn with the Bishop of course in which case he either gets mated in two (fxe4 Qe6+) or falls under mortal attack (Bf4 Bd4 Qc7 Bc5+). 26. ... Bxe4 27. Bxg7!! Rxg7? the game was over, but this loses at once. 27. ... h4 was to lengthen the resistance (in order to prevent Qh4+) 28. Qh4+ Kf7 29. Rd7+ Kg6 30. Rxg7 Kxg7 31. Qg5+ resigns. The real tag game!


Palo (DEN, 2519) - Balogh (HUN, 2537)
The position is even. But just one reckless move is ample for Balogh to conduct decisive attack. 15. Be5? Nd7! 16. Bxf6 Qxf6 accacking Nf3 and indirectly f2 17. Be2 Ne5 18. Nxe5 Qxf2+! 19. Kd2 dxc4-+ It is very dangerous thing to leave unprotected Knight at f3 while "f" file is open for attack.


Kotronias (GRE, 2587) - Kozul (CRO, 2585)
Frankly speaking Black's position seems repulsive. However, so quick and simple way to win the game is hard to be seen at first glance. Kotronias finds it: 21. Nxb5! Rxb5 22. Bxb5 exd4? loses at once, but the choice was small. f6-f5 could help a bit perhaps 23. Qxf6 the Knight is pinned and the Rook is hanging, I wonder what Kozul must have felt here 23. ... Ba6 24. Nxd4 Bxb5 25. Qf7+ Kd8 26. Ke6+ +- A demolition job again by Vasilios.