3rd round
Open Section
Out of the leaders only Croatia managed to win (2½:1½ versus Austria) and with that they became the sole leader with 5 match points. Croatia followed by 3 teams with 4 match points: Czech Republic (they beat Germany with quite a big margin, 3½:½), Hungary (after having both 2600+ GMs, Erdos and Banusz on the roaster they finally scored their first victory, 3½:½, versus Slovenia) and France ( after a 2:2 versus Italy). One more tie happened on the 3rd day, Slovakia versus Switzerland also ended in a tough 2:2 with 4 decisive games being played including the longest fight of the day.
Highlights section at the bottom features:
- Unfortunately for Vincent Keymer he once again was at the suffering end of a good game: a nice finish from the game Keymer (GER) – Kriebel (CZE)
- Small tactics from Schmidek (GER) – Kraus (CZE)
- A little detail in Jurcik (SLO) – Gallagher (2433) which could have made the longest game of the day a little bit shorter
Results
| Open | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  |
Czech Republic (2502) | 3½ | – | ½ | Germany (2493) |  |
| 2. |  |
Italy (2474) | 2 | – | 2 | France (2501) |  |
| 3. |  |
Croatia (2486) | 2½ | – | 1½ | Austria (2477) |  |
| 4. |  |
Slovenia (2409) | ½ | – | 3½ | Hungary (2545) |  |
| 5. |  |
Slovakia (2472) | 2 | – | 2 | Switzerland (2446) |  |
Standings
| Rk. | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Croatia | * |
2 |
3 |
2½ |
5 |
7,5 |
0 |
||||||
|
2 |
Czech Republic | * |
1 |
3½ |
3½ |
4 |
8,0 |
0 |
||||||
|
3 |
Hungary |
2 |
* |
3½ |
2 |
4 |
7,5 |
0 |
||||||
|
4 |
France |
3 |
* |
2 |
2 |
4 |
7,0 |
0 |
||||||
|
5 |
Slovakia | * |
1½ |
2 |
2½ |
3 |
6,0 |
0 |
||||||
|
6 |
Slovenia |
½ |
2½ |
* |
2 |
3 |
5,0 |
0 |
||||||
|
7 |
Italy |
2 |
2 |
* |
1½ |
2 |
5,5 |
0 |
||||||
|
8 |
Switzerland |
1 |
2 |
2 |
* |
2 |
5,0 |
0 |
||||||
|
9 |
Austria |
1½ |
½ |
2½ |
* |
2 |
4,5 |
0 |
||||||
|
10 |
Germany |
½ |
2 |
1½ |
* |
1 |
4,0 |
0 |
Women Section
Only one result could be seen on the score boards at the women section: all matches ended in 3:1. France got the better end of Italy and they are the only team with clean sheets – they are leading with 6 match points. There are 3 teams 2 match points behind: Hungary (after beating Slovenia), Czech Republic (thanks to the win against Germany) and Croatia. The later one run into a loss against Austria featuring a game with probably the most painful blunder of the day. Poland outperformed Slovakia and with that they moved up on the ladder as well.
Highlights section at the bottom features:
- The key move of a good game Kovacs (HUN) – Rozman (SLO)
- Cvitan (CRO) – Kopinits (AUT) with the above mentioned blunder
Results
| Woman | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | |
Czech Republic (2079) | 3 | – | 1 | Germany (2228) | |
| 2. | |
Italy (2221) | 1 | – | 3 | France (2144) | |
| 3. | |
Croatia (2180) | 1 | – | 3 | Austria (2155) | |
| 4. | |
Slovenia (2167) | 1 | – | 3 | Hungary (2280) | |
| 5. | |
Slovakia (2098) | 1 | – | 3 | Poland (2215) |  |
Standings
| Rk. | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
France | * |
3½ |
3 |
3 |
6 |
9,5 |
0 |
||||||
|
2 |
Hungary | * |
1½ |
3 |
3 |
4 |
7,5 |
0 |
||||||
|
3 |
Czech Republic |
½ |
* |
2½ |
3 |
4 |
6,0 |
0 |
||||||
| Croatia |
2½ |
* |
2½ |
1 |
4 |
6,0 |
0 |
|||||||
|
5 |
Slovenia |
1 |
* |
2 |
3½ |
3 |
6,5 |
1 |
||||||
|
6 |
Poland |
1½ |
2 |
* |
3 |
3 |
6,5 |
1 |
||||||
|
7 |
Austria |
1½ |
3 |
* |
2 |
3 |
6,5 |
0 |
||||||
|
8 |
Germany |
1 |
1 |
* |
4 |
2 |
6,0 |
0 |
||||||
|
9 |
Italy |
1 |
1 |
2 |
* |
1 |
4,0 |
0 |
||||||
|
10 |
Slovakia |
½ |
1 |
0 |
* |
0 |
1,5 |
0 |
Highlights
A very interesting struggle went on in the game Keymer,V – Kriebel,T from the Germany – Czech Republic match. After an exchange sac in the opening a complicated position arisen where both players managed to keep the balance up till the following position where white missed black’s sneaky threat and played 25.Rb5-b6:
Keymer,Vincent (2419) – Kriebel,Tadeas (2487) [A61]
Mitropa Cup – Open (3.2), 19.09.2017
Position after 25.Rb6
Black to move and win
25…Qh4! [Basically a double attack – the threats are Bh3 and g5 – turns out both of them are lethal and there is no good defense with white]
26.Rb7 [26.Qb3 Bxh3 27.Rb8+ Bf8 28.Rxa8 Qh5+ 29.Ke4 Bf5# could had been a cute finish as well
Position after 29.-Bf5#
26.Kg2 g5–+; 26.Ra6 Rf8 is not an improvement either]
26…g5 27.Qb5 Qh5+ 28.Kg2 gxf4 29.Rxg7+ Kxg7 30.Qb7+ Qf7 31.Qxa8 Be4+ 32.Kh2 fxe3 33.Rg1+ Kh6 34.f3 Qxf3 35.Qa2 Qf4+ 36.Rg3 Qf2+
0–1
A little tactic from the same matchup, Germany – Czech Republic:
Schmidek,Emil (2414) – Kraus,Tomas (2432) [B61]
Mitropa Cup – Open chess24.com (3.4), 19.09.2017
Position after 31.Re4
Black to move and win
The simple 31…Rxe5 wins on the spot 0–1 After 32.Re5 f2 there is no one left to stop the little guy on f2 from promoting.
Actually white’s last move on the diagram position was 31.Rd4-e4? and could have played 31.Rf4 instead, followed by 31.-Re5 32.Rf3 Re1+ 33.Kc2 Re2+ picking up the pawn on h2. Still not a good position for white, but at least there are some chances for survival.
The cute shortcut to the longest game of the day from the 3rd board of Slovakia – Switzerland:
Jurcik,Marian (2497) – Gallagher,Joseph G (2433) [B84]
Mitropa Cup – Open (3.3), 19.09.2017
Position after 65.Bf8
Black to move and wins on the spot
The position is winning anyways but black missed a cute finish, trapping the white bishop
65…Kf7!
[there was nothing wrong in the game which continued 65…Bf3 66.Ke7 b5 67.Ke6 Bb7 68.Ke7 Bd5 69.Ke8 Kh7 70.Be7 g5 71.Bxf6 g4 72.Be5 Kg6 73.Ke7 Kf5 74.Bc7 Ke4 75.Kf6 Bc6 76.Ke6 Kf3 77.Kd6 Be8 78.Ke7 Bc6 79.Kd6 Be4 80.Ke5 g3 81.Bb6 g2 82.Bc5 Bc6 83.Kd6 Ba8 84.Bd4 Kg3 85.Kc5 Kxh4 86.Kxb5 Kg3 0-1]
66.Be7 Ke8! 67.Ke6 Bd7+ 68.Kd6 Bg4 and black will just pass with the bishop on the c8-h3 diagonal till white runs out of sensible moves and has to give up the bishop on e7
An important move of a good game from the match between Hungary and Slovenia in the Women Section:
Kovacs,Judit (2042) – Rozman,Monika (2194) [D76]
Mitropa Cup – Women (3.4), 19.09.2017
Position after 17.-c6
White to move and win
18.b3!! [White is better anyways, but black has a fairly stable position and could fight on with real chances if the game had gone down on a different route. 18.b3 might not strike as a winning move, but actually it could be said so: unfortunately for black she cannot take the pawn as after 18…axb3 19.axb3 the knight is trapped on a5. Hence white will take on a4 next winning a pawn. But even more importantly completely destroying black’s setup on the queenside making the position a real disaster.]
f6 19.Nf3 Nd7 20.bxa4 Nxc5 21.dxc5 Bc4 22.Rc1 Bd5 23.Qe1 Bxf3 24.Bxf3 Qc7 25.Bb4 e5 26.f5 gxf5 27.Bh5 Red8 28.Rxf5 b6 29.cxb6 Qxb6 30.Bc5 Qc7 31.Bf3 Qd7 32.Be4 Nb7 33.Bb6 Rdc8 34.Rh5 Qf7 35.Bxh7+ Kf8 36.Qb4+ Ke8 37.Qb1 Kf8 38.Bg6 Qe7 39.Be4 Rxa4 40.Bxc6 Rb4 41.Qf5 Rb8 42.Bxb7 Rxb6 43.Rc8+ Rxc8 44.Qxc8+ Qe8 45.Qc5+ Kg8 46.Bd5+ Re6 47.Rh4 Bf8 48.Qc4
1–0
Chess blindness from the first board of Croatia – Austria from the Women Section:
Cvitan,Ena (2270) – Kopinits,Anna-Christina (2293) [D10]
Mitropa Cup – Women (3.1), 19.09.2017
Position after 45.-h:g
White to move, what should she do?
After few minutes of pondering white played 46.Ke2?? and resigned after 46…g4 47.Kf2 Kd3
0–1
An unfortunate case of chess blindness – 46.g4 easily draws in this well-known pawn endgame if white doesn’t fall for 46.-Kf4 47.Kg2?? where she would still lose due to the opposition. But obviously 47.Kg1 or Kf1 planning to answer 47.-Kg4 with 48.Kg2 is an elementary draw.