As usual the Russian players are dominant all over the field. Please note, of course, that we have mentioned those, who nowadays play under Israeli flag, since the Russian team is doing worse than bad and are lying in unbelievable 12th. Yesterday was a history day for the Netherlands who beat the Russians 3-1 to move into sole runner-up position. Soviet ex-patriate Tiviakov had no remorse to defeat Dreev and a living babyface legend Jan Timman ran over Motylev. Israel stopped almighty French squad and both Fressinet and Lautier, who were both doing so well until yesterday, lost. Israel peak at a record 2762 ELO performance level after round 6. See this interesting list to see who is doing well and who just made use of a bit of luck. By the way luck, Poland moved into 3rd position but they will now struggle since they did not play any of top 8 so today will be the test for them as they were honoured to face Israel at top board. Ukraine lost badly to Azerbaijan and perhaps their hopes on tirple crown (Olympiad, World Team Championship and European Team Championship) are over. Maybe they might still hunt for silver or bronze. Armenia-Romania, another match of the day, was a brisk 2-all draw. Lucky Luke (McShane) beat IM Hall of Sweden "C" to lead England to a 3-1 win and opens himself the statistics with a record performance of 5/6. Spain took a deep breath - a 4-0 vs Scotland as small consolation for past disasters - of course it is all over for them.

In the women's section Poland had all the luck to see N. Kosintseva making an awful blunder to level match result to a 2-2 (this may cost the Russians a lot!) and retained the lead. Inna Gaponenko sealed Ukraine's win over Romania and Georgia, 2nd seeds, ran over Hungary. France lost to Holland and the French girls led by Almira Skripchenko found themselved in 19th position, very close to the bottom of the table - is this what the 2001 Champions were dreaming about?

Standings
Men: Israel - 11; Holland - 10; Poland, Azerbaijan and France - 9
Women: Poland - 10; Russia, Bulgaria, Georgia and Ukraine - 9; Romania and Greece - 8

Now you can watch games of both men's and women's section round 1-6 online via well known OlimpBase format!
15th men's ETCh info page.
15th women's ETCh info page.
(Please note: history statistics are not available yet. Olympic statistics are used instead)

Watch live games of round 7:
Poland-Israel and Azerbaijan-Holland (men)
France-Armenia and Georgia-Ukraine (men)
Romania-Greece (men) and Georgia-Romana(women)
Poland-Bulgaria and Russia-Ukraine (women)

Link for today:
Hans-Olav Lahlum's reports - the Norwegian arbiter writes daily, extensive reports on women event.


HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY

Lautier (FRA, 2672) - Sutovsky (ISR, 2674)
The position is clearly better for Black because of control over open file, excellent outpost for black Knight, protected King. Watch out how he converts it into a win in just a couple of moves: 36. ... Nd2! 37. Qe3 f5! the idea of this move is to gain control over e4 (Nxe4 is a direct threat). If exf5 then Qd5+ and Ne4 will follow 38. Bb6 Nxe4 (still) 39. Bxd8 Nxf2 40. Kxf2?? seems tempting since White may want to take control over "d" file but loses at once. 40. ... Ra2+ 41. Ke1 Qd5 resigns. Qh1 cannot be successfully refuted.


Fressinet (FRA,2627) - Erenburg (ISR, 2595)
Can Black do the job? Yes he could. See how: 84. ... Qa4+ 85. Kd5 maybe Kd3 was safer? 85. ... f4 86. Qc3? only 86. Qb2 was promising for White 86. ... Qc6+ 87. Ke5 Qxc5+ 88. Kxf4 and the game is still open 86. ... f3! 87. Qe3 if Qxf3 then Qc6+ wins the Queen 87. ... Qd1+ 88. Ke4 Qe2 89. c6+ Qxe2 90. Kxe2 bxc6 -+ since white King has to take the f3 pawn first it will not find enough time to stop the c6.


Tiviakov (NED, 2678) - Dreev (RUS, 2698)
Black's only activity was a Bishop commuting between f6 and g7. How can White break Black's order? 37. ... Bg7 again 38. g4! Bf6 39. g5! hxg5 40. h6 g4+ 41. Kg2 Kf8 42. h7 Bg7 White pawn is just a step from heaven, but this is the biggest threshold 43. Bxe5 Rxe5 44. Qd7 Re7? overlooking neat trap 45. Qd8+ Rd8 46. Qd6+ Rd7 what is white Queen aiming at? 47. Qh6!! Re2+ 48. Kf1 Bxh6 49. h8=Q+ resigns. No regret and no remorse.


Almasi (HUN, 2619) - Lutz (GER, 2616)
Interesting position, isn't it? Still, Black looks to keep small advantage. He plans to castle and then take Nc4 21. Bc7!! a thunderstruck! Control over d5 is worth a piece. 21. ... Bxc4 22. bxc4 Qxc7 23. Qxd5 Qf4+ 24. Kb2 Qxf3? loses prescious time 25. Qxa8+ Ke7 26. Qb7 of course not Qxh8?? because of Qc3+ with soon mate 26. ... Kf6 27. Qc6 Kg5? why not Kf7? 28. h4+ Kf4 29. Qc7+ Bd6 30. Rxe4+! Kxe4? Qxe4 was much better 31. Bd3+ Ke3 32. Qb6+ +-


Gustafsson (GER, 2614) - Berkes (HUN, 2619)
This position seems to be a dead draw, right? Would you believe the game will be over in just a few moves given both players are 2600+ GMs? No? Just check: 28. ... Qxa3 29. Qxa3 Na6 30. Rb1 Rc8?? 31. Bb7 resigns. Yes, this happens, even to the grandmasters.


Haznedaroglu (TUR, 2430) - Jones (WLS, 2325)
Now a little bit of romantic chess. Here everything is possible. The diagram position is much better for Black of course. He is a pawn up, has better piece co-ordination and just needs a move or two to complete his development. 13. Ncxb5?! doens't quite work but better this that waiting for execution 13. ... Qc8? why not to take the piece first? 14. fxe5 Ne4 15. Nd6+ Bxd6 16. exd6 Qd7 17. Qh4 Qxd6+ 18. Nf5 Qf8? Qxd1 and exf5 was an option 19. Bxa6!! resigns. If Rxa6 then Re8#; if Bxa6 then Qex4 wins; if Bxc6 then still Qxe4! wins. A superb manoeuvre!


Radziewicz (POL, 2447) - N.Kosintseva (RUS, 2490)
Russia were in the lead 2-1 and it seemed like they are going to dethrone the Poles. The game is virtually over (draw). Black has perpetual check in the pocket in case of trouble and White's position is impossible to break. Yet with 30 seconds per move not every detail of the position may always be analyzed... 68. ... Kd8?? Kb7 refuted the threat leading to a move repetition soon 69. Rg6 resigns. Rg8 will follow. Better luck next time!