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Fourth Round: Russia Takes The Lead |
 Taking advantage of the heavyweight battle between second and third seeds, Iran and India, Russia moved forward with a 3,5-0,5 win against Poland. Iran managed to beat India 2,5-1,5 to take second place before the start of fifth round when FM Das Sayantan from India rightly rejected to accept three-fold repetition on second board but misplayed the ending and lost. Summarizing, the favorites all got back where they had started.
Moving down the list, Lithuania, Serbia and Armenia all scored clear wins with 3-1 score against their opponents Turkey-Turkuaz, Turkey-Red and Azerbaijan respectively. Azerbaijan’s point came from the only board where they had a rating disadvantage and it was the most interesting game of the round. It seemed as if Black gaining a central pawn just in the opening was more than happy with his position but the young Azerbaijani player showed how to play in such situations, he complicated the position, opened lines for his pieces against the black king in the center and attacked fiercely to score a nice win against his higher rated opponent.
Among the other notable results were Turkey-Istanbul beating Czech Republic 2,5-1,5 with Cem Gundogan scoring another nice win on first board to continue with his unbeaten streak and Georgia’s 3-1 win against Peru to rise even further on standings.
The fifth round will be played on September 1, 10.00. |
