Congrats to Romania in the U18, Poland in the U18 female, Israel in the U12 and Germany in the U12 female! After 7 hard-fought days at the Landessportschule Bad Blankenburg the new, and in the U18 female old, European Champions have been announced. They all worked hard to win the title, were well prepared and rewarded for their efforts.

In the U18 Open Romania was the winner, as already mentioned in other reports, after defeating Germany 1 yesterday. Today it was no more than a 2-2 against Slovenia, but the winner has more than earned this little slip. Germany 1 against Austria became the expected exciting match. Vincent Keymer with the black stones, could once again quickly prove an advantage and put Felix Blohberger with his pair of bishops under great pressure until he collapsed under this pressure. A defeat by Julian Martin and a victory by Raphael Lagunow later, the mission was to secure the team victory at the German board 1 and thus possibly the silver medal. His opponent Dominik Horvath tried everything and actually managed to overcome Rosen's defense and got the full point, a strong fighting performance. So the eyes were pointed on Table 3, where Poland played against Belarus.

The Polish team had to play against Belarus. Olga Badelka gave the quality to Pawel Teclaf's Tarrash defense in the women's gambit and had to defend herself tenaciously afterwards. She managed that and so the game ended with the division of points. Board 4 was in for a surprise, because the Belarusian outsider was about to win the match with black against his superior opponent (Elo). He managed it, everyone else held draws and so Belarus won sensationally.

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The German fans had hoped until the end that even at 1.5: 1.5 between Germany 1 and Romania: Everything could have happened in a very confused position on board 3. But in the end the Romanians deservedly won the European Championship 2018 in the U18 Open in Bad Blankenburg. Congratulations!

The round got off to an exciting start, Vincent Keymer gained a strong position and apparently effortlessly exploited it. Roven Vogel, however, overlooked a very strong tactical idea of his opponent, which cost him a pawn. He fought over many moves, but in the end he had to admit defeat. Raphael Lagunow on board 4 did not get out against his opponent about the division of points, so that the well-being of the German team hung on Julian Martin . . . with the outcome just mentioned.

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Even in the Monday round, the youngsters at the EYTCC did not spare the nerves of the spectators. Fights were fought, there were numerous decisive matches and in some age groups teams fired their way out of the title fight.

Romania is still on course in the U18 Open. The Austrian opponent had to accept an early defeat on board 3, because Marc Morgunov lost a bishop early and had to give up immediately. Not much better was his brother Dirk, who could not avert a defeat on the fourth board. Thus Romania's success was almost impossible to take away. Because board 1 had no view for any side on a full point, accordingly the peace pipe was smoked in a dead draw rook end game. Romania had collected the necessary 2.5 board points and the result on board 2 no longer played a role.

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