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Round 7: We have one new leader: Hoang Thanh Trang. She has beaten in a positionnal Philidor Lilit Mkrtchian. She used the famous plan d4-d5, and after closing
the center by c6-c5, white developed an easy attack on queen side by Rb1 and b4.
The Hungarian player has half point more than 12 players.
Everything is still possible!
Round 6: We have one leader now, Lilit Mkrtchian won a technical endgame: 2 bishops against knight and bishop, over Monika Socko. It looked like draw at the begin of the endgame, but than, white found the very nice c4! to break all the black's position.
5 players are right behind, among them Nino Khurtsidze who won with black against a former Georgian player Arakhamia, Pogonina, Foisor who defeated in a very tough game the young Ovod. Hoang, who drew easily with Melia, will face today Mkrtchian.
Tomorrow is free day and players will go in some excursion to visit the famous Hermitage Museum of St Petersburg!
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Round 5: Big surprise today with the victory of Melia Salome over her compatriote Nana Dzagnidze! With black pieces, Melia played a very nice endgame and has beaten one of the favorite.
We had a nice fight on the first table, which finally ended in a draw. Theses 3 players are reached by Lilit Mkrtchian, who won a nice game also with black.
Today, we saw a lot of actions on many boards, Lomineishvili and Ushenina were better, but couldn't manage to win and had to make draws.
You can see the video report with interviews of players, on fide.com and europe-echecs.com
Round 4: Here we are! Just 2 players have 100% and will face each other for the 5th round: GM Hoang Thanh Trang and GM Socko, Monika.
The sensation of the day was the victory in 89 moves with black pieces of Shadrina over the rating number one of the tournament, Anna Muzychuk.
In a long bishop endgame, the Russian girl showed a great technique to achieve a superb performance.
Nine players have 3,5/4 and among them, the European Champion 2008 Kateryna Lahno who convincingly won in a Sicilian Najdorf, giving early a piece in the opening for the initiative. Dzagnidze drew her game and is facing an other Georgian girl: Melia Salome.
We expect a lot of fight for the 5th round!
Round 3: There were interesting fights today, included the King's Indian of the Polish player Zawadzka against Dzagnidze. The Georgian player showed a great technique to finally win that game.
There was a big shock on the 5th board, bewteen a 100% Ukrainian match. The favorite Gaponenko lost to Gritsayeva.
Kosintseva, after 2 draws, scored her first win today!
We have for now 6 players with 3/3, and 21 players with 2,5/3. Serious things begin tomorrow!
Robert Fontaine (GMI) from Europe-Echecs
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