Czech A team and Germany share the leading position with ten points each and it seems the winner will be one of them. With this in mind it is clear that today’s match between them is the crucial one. Austria, Croatia and Italy have six points and there is only three point difference between last place (Slovakia) and third place. It will be interesting to watch who will play the best in the last three rounds.

Three players earned 4,5 points so far, Vitaly Kunin and Cyril Ponížil managed to get them playing only 5 games what makes them the most successful players. It’s no surprise that six best players are from the leading teams Czech Republic A and Germany with one expection – Jan Vykouk from Czech Republic B team. Jan is only sixteen years old and he managed to win three games and draw the rest two. Excellent performance!

Jan Vykouk (on the right) watching game of Christopher Repka

Germany team leads the women section as well with ten points. They lost points only by draws with Italy and Slovakia. The title race in women tournament is more interesting than in open section because u Italy is only one point short and Hungary two. Today’s match between Hungary and Italy will be very interesting.

Home team of Czech republic had great first half of the tournament but then they lost fifth and sixth round and went down to the fifth place with six points. On the bottom of the table is Slovenian team. They managed to get at least half point in every match but four defeats 1,5:0,5 left them with only three match points.

The best player so far is Judith Fuchs from Germany with 4,5/5. Italian Team is driven by Marina Brunello who played only four games but won all of them. The strongest player of the tournament Elisabeth Paehtz has arrived in course of tournament, so she succeeded in playing only two games so far. She won both of them and it seems that she will lead Germany in the rest of the tournament. And it is a big deal, that with rating 2502 Pähtz would be able to participate in the open section successfuly…

It’s important to feel comfortable J

The fans can watch live commentary of IM Pavel Šimáček every round. Pavel is trying to invite interesting guests for every round and he is doing a great job. Players like Viktor Láznička (2654) or Sergei Movsesian (2660) know a thing or two about chess… It is also very helpful when players go and share their opinions about their game after they finish. You can watch recorded commentary of previous rounds here.

There are just three rounds till the end, stay tunned!

IM Pavel Šimáček with GM Sergei Movsesian who had once rating 2751