Germany beat Armenia to grab the sole lead after five rounds in the open section of the European Team Championship. Wins for Vincent Keymer and Matthias Bluebaum, both with black, gave the Germans match victory. Four teams are sharing second place a match point back, including Romania, who defeated the former co-leaders from Poland. In the women’s championship, France and Azerbaijan scored convincing wins to remain as co-leaders going into the rest day. | Photo: Paul Meyer-Dunker / German Chess Federation
No more teams have perfect scores in either section of the European Team Championships. In the open tournament, Armenia joined Germany and Poland in the lead thanks to a 3-1 victory over Israel. In the women’s tournament, Germany joined Azerbaijan and France thanks to a 2½-1½ victory over Hungary. Meanwhile, Magnus Carlsen scored his third win of the event, as he helped Norway to grab 2 match points in their match against Finland. | Photo: Mark Livshitz
Four players are sharing the lead with three rounds to go in the open section of the FIDE Grand Swiss after Fabiano Caruana, Bogdan-Daniel Deac and Andrey Esipenko scored full points on Thursday to join Vidit Gujrathi atop the standings. Nine players stand a half point behind, including second seed Hikaru Nakamura and Indian prodigy Arjun Erigaisi. In the women’s tournament, meanwhile, Anna Muzychuk, Antoaneta Stefanova and Vaishali Rameshbabu continue to share first place. | Photo: Anna Shtourman
Going into the rest day, the Women’s Grand Swiss has a sole leader in Anna Muzychuk, who defeated Bibisara Assaubayeva with the white pieces on Monday. In the open, eight players are sharing the lead with 4½/6 points each, as Fabiano Caruana, Vidit Gujrathi, Javokhir Sindarov, Alexandr Predke and Radoslaw Wojtaszek grabbed full points to join the leading pack. | Photo: Anna Shtourman
There are no more perfect scores in the open section of the Grand Swiss, as all seven co-leaders drew their games in round 3, allowing a trio of youngsters to join the lead i.e. Sam Sevian (pictured), Marc’Andria Maurizzi and Javokhir Sindarov. In the women’s section, on the other hand, two players did win their three first games to keep perfect scores after Friday’s round: Tan Zhongyi, who beat Antoaneta Stefanova, and Anna Muzychuk, who got the better of Irina Bulmaga. | Photo: Anna Shtourman