Today's round was very exciting. The interesting fact is that in the first 15 boards, apart from a few games which finished as a draw, almost all the games were won by black. On the board one, Nino Khurtsidze played a very good game and defeated the 14-year-old Goryachkina.
Also, with black won Kosteniuk, Melia, Charochkina, Purtseladze, Arabidze and Socko. On the second board Anna Muzychuk drew with Deimante Daulyte, and on third Natalia Pogonina with Nana Dzagnidze.
Valentina Gunina defeated Corina Peptan with white, in a very interesting game full of turnovers. Ekatarina Atalik also won with white, against Iva Videnova.
It is certainly worth to mention 2 draws of Serbian players. Marija Rakic drew with Sofi Milliet, and Jovana Eric with Tatiana Kosintseva.
Tomorrow 7th round is on schedule, after which comes the rest day. This is the part of the tournament when it is very important to keep the strenght for the last decisive rounds, so it will be interesting to see who will have more energy in the end.
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.
Yesterday's Guest of the day was Grandmaster Viktorija Cmilyte, who effectivelly defeated Irina Bulmaga in a very sharp Sicilian, with black pieces. After she showed us her game, Viktorija answered a few questions.
Nadezda Stojanovic
You are an Olympiad double gold medal winner. You are a member of the strongest Bundesliga club Baden Baden, you are playing many leagues and many important top tournaments. So you are a very active chess player. Is it possible to make a living by playing chess and being a professional chess player?
Aleksandra Goryachkina defeated Bela Khotenashvili in a marathon game with white pieces, and with this victory, she is in the sole lead after 4th round. After the opening, it seemed she had more pleasant position and more space for her pieces. After much maneuvering, the position went into an endgame, and if only Bela didn't blunder, the game would have finished as a draw.
Viktorija Cmilyte effectively defeated Irina Bulmaga in a very sharp Sicilian. Viktorija seemed to enjoy her position with black, and in only 27 moves she scored her third win in this tournament.
Good game was played on the board number 4, between Ekatarina Kovalevskaya and Tatiana Kosintseva. However, after a great fight, Tatiana blundered in a time trouble and had to resign two moves after.
Convincing wins achieved Katherina Lagno against Nino Batsiashvili and Antoaneta Stefanova againist Sabrina Vega Gutierrez.
Important victory scored Maia Lomineishvili, who defeated former compatriot Ana Matnadze in 104 moves.
Jovana Vojinovic - the best rated Serbian player on the tournament, drew with Natalia Pogonina. She had a slight advantage as white, but she couldn't make more than half a point.
Melia Salome decided to play Lasker and try to use tactics against Inna Gaponenko, but this was not enough for a win against experienced Ukrainian.
Nadezda Stojanovic:
Ladies and gentleman, welcome to another „Guest of the Day“ conference of the European Individual Women's Chess Championship. My guest today is Mr. Vladimir Bykov, Vice-President of St. Petersburg Chess Federation. Vladimir hello and welcome.
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- Press Conference of Alisa Maric and Silvio Danailov
