Militant 5th round
Today's round was quite militant. Even the games which were finished as a draw, were played till the very end.
The leading Aleksandra Goryachkina drew with black with Viktorija Cmilyte, and the game between Salome Melia and Katherina Lagno finished in the same way.
Big surprise of the 5th round is definitely the win of Deimante Daulyte, who defeated Antoaneta Stefanova with white in a Scotch line. The game was played according to the theory until some point, but afterwards, black got into the position which was quite difficult to defend.
Nino Khurtsidze played very well against Ekatarina Kovalevskaya. She was taking over the space, move by move, and outplayed the experienced Russian player.
Alexandra Kosteniuk didn't have much difficulties in the game against Serbian Jovana Vojinovic. She captured a pawn, and it turned out this small material advantage was more than enough for a win. In two Georgian clashes, the victories went to Bela Khotenashvili against Maia Lomineishvili, and Nana Dzagnidze against Sopiko Guramishvili.
Whole point also scored Valentina Gunina, who recovered after the loss in the round 2 with three wins in a row, then Natalia Pogonina, Hoang Trang, Lilit Mkrtchian and Olga Girya.
Important victories achieved Nastassia Ziaziulkina against Tatiana Kosintseva and Meri Arabidze against Natalia Zhukova.
Last in the hall finished Corina Peptan and Inna Gaponenko, who drew after 87 moves.
After the 5th round, three players are in the lead with 4.5 points, followed by 13 players with 4 points.
