This will probably be the shortest report about a round of the entire tournament, because this morning only the U12 female was playing. The First match to be over was between the Czech Republic and Germany 1. Luisa Bashylina set her opponents relatively early with the help of Qg7 checkmate! This made the task easier for Svenja Butenandt, who exchanged everything against her opponent Anna Voriskova, until a "dead-draw” final with 2 rooks on the board did not allow anything else but the division of points.

No it is not New Year's Eve yet and there is also nothing to celebrate (yet). But according to Alexei Shirov's motto, there was "fire on board". The teams are so close together that every victory since round 1 is hard earned, every point has to be fought for and no opponents can really be described as easy. As a local spectator, but certainly also as a fan of the countries and a friend on the laptop, I am quickly captivated by the many interesting tactical twists and surprises.

The U12 proved today that half of all age groups do not equal half of the excitement at the same time: the spectators, parents and coaches were offered a lot. The young talents from Europe gave everything to be successful for their team. The French did make yesterday's defeat in the U12 female forgotten and won 2-0 against the Czech team. The player with the highest Elo in the U12 female category is Hungarian Zsoka Gaal (2044). She won today in the match against Luisa Bashylina (Germany 1). In the end it was still 1-1, because Svenja Butenandt equaled the match with the white pieces. 1-1 was also the result of the German duel between teams 2 and 3, Helena Ulrich brought Germany 3 into the lead, but Saskia Pohle won her game with many ups and downs in the end! You can see how balanced the field is in the many undecided matches.