First “live” report of round 3:
The men team was close to a sensation against the United States. Watu got an absolutely winning endgame against Nakamura:
However, he missed a lot of good moves and at the end he even lost. Daniel came also close to winning, while Johannes was under pressure first, but fighted back and was clearly better just before the end. Only Henry was outplayed by his opponent.
The girls also played a much higher ranked team, Latvia. Carmen played a bad game with white, but Anzel won a pawn with a nice combination in the opening. However, she relaxed too early, her opponent got good counterchances on the queen’s side and managed to win with a breakthrough. In the meantime Melissa had beaten her 2320 opponent with black by taking a pawn, another pawn and another pawn. White’s attack got nowhere and almost a board down white resigned. Monique managed to get a strong king´s indian bishop against a knight, with white’s king in the middle. It was not so clear since white did have active pieces, but at the end her queen entered white’s position in a mating attack. 2-2 is well done by the girls!
Well fought, keep going!
i really hoped that watu could upset nakamura – and so close – watu is a proven giantkiller (remember him beating peter leko) – and a vital player on our team – daniel played a good game too – had the initiative against shulman for sure but it was difficult to push for a win against the GMs solid defense
Solid games overall – henry dont worry about losing – most important is the gain of experience – a real baptism of fire!