2nd round
Open Section
We are only through 2 rounds and there are no more teams with a perfect score. Croatia, Czech Republic and Slovenia – the 3 first round winners – didn’t manage to follow up with yet another win. Croatia was paired against Hungary and made 2:2 on a tough match while Slovenia did the same against Switzerland. Czech Republic run into 3:1 loss against France. It seems it pays off very well so far for France having their highest rated player, Yannick Gozzoli (2582) on the 4th board. He scored 2 victories so far with black pieces helping France to join in the lead with 3 match points accompanied by Croatia and Slovenia. Slovakia scored an important victory over Germany while Austria beat Italy 2½:1½ thanks to the strangest game so far on the tournament.
Highlights section at the bottom features:
- Details on the above mentioned strangest game, Codenotti (ITA) – Kreisl (AUT)
- An interesting endgame from Banusz (HUN) – Kuljasevic (CRO)
- A nice tactical shot form the game Mazur (SLO) – Keymer (GER)
Results
| Open | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  |
Germany (2493) | 1½ | – | 2½ | Slovakia (2472) |  |
| 2. |  |
Switzerland (2446) | 2 | – | 2 | Slovenia (2409) |  |
| 3. |  |
Hungary (2545) | 2 | – | 2 | Croatia (2486) |  |
| 4. |  |
Austria (2477) | 2½ | – | 1½ | Italy (2474) |  |
| 5. |  |
France (2501) | 3 | – | 1 | Czech Republic (2502) |  |
Standings
| Rk. | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Croatia | * | 2 | 3 | 3 | 5,0 | 0 | |||||||
| 2 | France | * | 3 | 2 | 3 | 5,0 | 0 | |||||||
| 3 | Slovenia | * | 2½ | 2 | 3 | 4,5 | 0 | |||||||
| 4 | Czech Republic | 1 | * | 3½ | 2 | 4,5 | 0 | |||||||
| 5 | Hungary | 2 | * | 2 | 2 | 4,0 | 0 | |||||||
| 6 | Slovakia | 1½ | * | 2½ | 2 | 4,0 | 0 | |||||||
| 7 | Austria | ½ | * | 2½ | 2 | 3,0 | 0 | |||||||
| 8 | Germany | 2 | 1½ | * | 1 | 3,5 | 0 | |||||||
| 9 | Italy | 2 | 1½ | * | 1 | 3,5 | 0 | |||||||
| 10 | Switzerland | 1 | 2 | * | 1 | 3,0 | 0 |
Women Section
France 3½:½ victory over Czech Republic and Croatia’s 2½:1½ upset over Hungary gave those 2 teams an early lead in the Women Section. After their first round fiasco, Germany bounced back with a confident 4:0 victory over Slovakia while the remaining matches, Poland vs Slovenia and Austria vs Italy ended in a 2:2 tie, the later one producing 4 decisive games with no draws.
Highlights section at the bottom features:
Results
| Open | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | |
Germany (2228) | 4 | – | 0 | Slovakia (2098) | |
| 2. |  |
Poland (2215) | 2 | – | 2 | Slovenia (2167) | |
| 3. | |
Hungary (2280) | 1½ | – | 2½ | Croatia (2180) | |
| 4. | |
Austria (2155) | 2 | – | 2 | Italy (2221) | |
| 5. | |
France (2144) | 3½ | – | ½ | Czech Republic (2079) | |
Standings
| Rk. | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | France | * | 3 | 3½ | 4 | 6,5 | 0 | |||||||
| 2 | Croatia | * | 2½ | 2½ | 4 | 5,0 | 0 | |||||||
| 3 | Slovenia | * | 2 | 3½ | 3 | 5,5 | 0 | |||||||
| 4 | Germany | 1 | * | 4 | 2 | 5,0 | 0 | |||||||
| 5 | Hungary | 1½ | * | 3 | 2 | 4,5 | 0 | |||||||
| 6 | Czech Republic | ½ | * | 2½ | 2 | 3,0 | 0 | |||||||
| 7 | Poland | 1½ | 2 | * | 1 | 3,5 | 0 | |||||||
| Austria | 1½ | * | 2 | 1 | 3,5 | 0 | ||||||||
| 9 | Italy | 1 | 2 | * | 1 | 3,0 | 0 | |||||||
| 10 | Slovakia | ½ | 0 | * | 0 | 0,5 | 0 |
Highlights
Let’s see how the before mentioned strangest game concluded which helped Austria to beat Italy:
Codenotti,Marco (2464) – Kreisl,Robert (2427) [B19]
Mitropa Cup – Open (2.2), 18.09.2017
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.h4 h6 7.Nf3 e6 8.Bd3 Bxd3 9.Qxd3 Nf6 10.Bd2 Be7 11.0–0–0 Nbd7 12.Qe2 0–0 13.Nf1 c5 14.g4 cxd4 15.g5 Nd5 16.gxh6 Qb6 17.Qe4 Nc5 18.Qg4 Bf6 19.Bg5 Na4 20.b3 Qb4 21.Bxf6 Qa3+ 22.Kd2 Qb4+ 23.Kc1 Qa3+ 24.Kd2 Qb4+
After repeating moves 2 time with Kc1-Qa3+ Kd2-Qb4+ white decides not to play Kc1 with an immediate draw but goes for
25.Kd3 after almost 4 minutes of thinking (according to the website) which loses immediately to Nc5+ followed by d3+picking up the queen on g4. 25.Kd3 is a very strange decision – other than Nc5 or Nb2 + which are winning on the spot, black has Qb5+ with perpetual – it is really hard to see what was there to gain for white with this move.
0–1
An interesting endgame form the Hungary-Croatia matchup:
Banusz,Tamas (2608) – Kuljasevic,Davorin (2549) [A11]
Mitropa Cup – Open (2.1), 18.09.2017
Position after 65.-Bf6
White is up 2 pawns, but the opposite colored bishop coupled with the wrong colored promotion square for the white “h” pawn makes this position extremely hard to win. But it turns out Bf6 was a slight mistake for black, and the bishop is actually misplaced there. Here white continued with 66.Kh3 and the game fiddled out in a draw as follows: 66.Kh3 Bb2 67.Bd3 Qf6 68.Kg2 Bd4 69.f5 g5 70.hxg5+ Qxg5 71.f4 Qf6 72.Kh3 Bb2 73.Qe2 Bc3 74.Qe4 Qd4 75.Qe6+ Qf6 76.Qc8 Bd2 77.Qc4 Bc3 78.Qe4 Bb2 79.Be2 Qf7 80.Qc6+ Bf6 81.Kg2 Kg7 82.Qf3 Kh6 83.Qd3 Qc7 84.Qa6 Qe7 85.Bf3 Qf7 86.Qe2 Bg7 87.Qc2 Bd4 88.Bxh5 Qxh5 89.Qc6+ Kh7 90.Qd7+ Bg7 91.f6 Qe2+ 92.Kh3 Qh5+ 93.Kg2 ½–½
66.f3! [with the idea of g4 seems to be a good try here]
66…Ba1!! [This weird move is the best chance – black needs to have the b2 square available for the queen for counter play, so what else to do? That is why Bf6 was a mistake on the previous move.]
[66…Be7 is losing to 67.Bxg6+–]
67.g4 hxg4 68.fxg4 Qb2+ 69.Kg3 Qa3+ 70.Bf3 Kg7 [and black still not losing by force, but white has some g5–h5 ideas with a very good winning chances]
A nice tactical shot form the match between Slovakia vesrus Germany:
Mazur,Stefan (2472) – Keymer,Vincent (2419) [C95]
Mitropa Cup – Open (2.2), 18.09.2017
Position after 33.-Re5
White to move and win
34.Nh5!! [After this nice shot black’s position is falling apart immediately]
Bh8 35.Rxe5 Bxe5 36.Re1 c4+ 37.Kh1 Qxd6 38.Rxe5 Qxe5 39.Qxd7 Bxg2+ 40.Kxg2 Qe2+ 41.Kg3 Qe1+ 42.Kf3 Qf1+ 43.Ke4 Qe2+ 44.Kf4 Qf2+ 45.Ke5 Qxb2+ 46.Kd5 Qg2+ 47.Kc5 Qf2+ 48.Kc6 Qf3+ 49.Kb6 Qa8 50.Nf6+ Kh8 51.Qxf7 Qb8+ 52.Kc5 Qc8+ 53.Kb4
1–0
An interesting turning point from the France-Czech Republic match from the Women Section:
Richterova,Natasa (2188) – Haussernot,Cecile (2136) [B95]
Mitropa Cup – Women (2.2), 18.09.2017
Position after 27.-Be4+
After building up a nice advantage and attack on the queenside, black went on sacrificing prematurely her pieces and now she throws in the bishop as well to create some chances
28.Bd3?? [and white falls for the bluff – after 28.Qxe4 b2 the cold blooded 29.Rdd1! stopping Qa1 – b1Q ideas once and for all would be an easy win for white 29…Rc8 30.Bc4 and it is all over]
28…b2 29.Rxb2 Bxd3+ 30.Kc1 Qa1+ 31.Kd2 Rxb2+ 32.Kxd3 Qa3+ 33.Ke4 Rb4 34.Rd1 g6 35.Qxb4 Qxb4+ 36.Ke3 Qc3+ 37.Rd3 Qe1+ 38.Kf3 g5 39.fxg5 Qxe5 40.h4 Qh2 41.Rd8+ Kg7 42.h5 Qh3+ 43.Kf4 e5+ 44.Kxe5 Qe3+ 45.Kf5 Qc5+
0–1