The organization has established itself by now. The coffee and the food are punctually in the game room, there are daily reports, the pairings and rankings are posted informatively, the food tastes good and the sun shines, as if she also likes what is going on here in Bad Blankenburg.

The young people can also enjoy the sun outside before and after the game, play soccer or go swimming.

The focus, of course, is on the chess part, because this is not about a flowerpot, but about winning a European Championship. The games of the 3rd round were correspondingly exciting and fiercely contested. At table 1 of the U18 Austria and Poland met. The Poles quickly took the lead thanks to board 4 Szustakowski. 2 draws later, the welfare of the Austrians hung on Board 2, where the undefeated Felix Blohberger had to put pressure on Szymon Gumularz to score another 2-2. The young Pole had sacrificed a figure early on, but the compensation, or at least the full compensation for it, remained questionable. Blohberger remained cool and scored the point to a draw.

A similar tension arose in the encounter between Belarus and Romania. The Romanian number 1 currently makes a very good impression, after a strong victory yesterday there was also today again the full point for him. But Belarus, in the person of IM Nikitenko, managed to equalize the score, which Olga Badelka consolidated in a draw. Now you have to know that the fourth board of Belarusians is their weakness, because there a player always plays with about 300 Elo-points less than his opponents. Today he was able to keep up with his opponent for a long time and reached a balanced final, which the Romanian Vasiescu then turned over bit by bit to the win. An important victory for Romania!

Slovenia entered the match against Hungary as an easy outsider, but Hungary could not resist except at board 1 where IM Kozak was successful and had to win 3-1 at the end.

In the duel of the hosts Germany 2, with Emil Schmidek, Valentin Buckels, Konstatin Urban and Jonas Roseneck against Germany 3 with Luis Engel, Alexander Rieß, Jakob Pajeken and Daniel Kopylov it went back and forth. The first completed game was played between Konstantin Urban and Jakob Pajeken. Despite Konstatin being slightly more comfortable with black in between, the game ended in a draw. More pleasant or simply better was also Luis Engel with white against Emil Schmidek, but could not make anything of his advantage of the 2 bishops and also agreed to the draw after good defense of Emil. Daniel Kopylov put the French defense on the board, in which he was certainly never really in danger. A bishop's final of the same color was achieved, which Jonas Roseneck was able to keep a draw despite not quite optimal treatment at the beginning of the final. So it all came down to the match between Valentin Buckels and Alexander Rieß. The latter was clearly worse, but was able to free himself from the bad situation and many saw him already on the way to the advantage, but in the end in a wild game Valentin was determined as the winner and thus also Germany 2 as the winner against Germany 3.

Germany 1 scored a sovereign victory against Denmark. Roven Vogel, Julian Martin and Raphael Lagunow didn't burn anything. Only Vincent Keymer had a hard time against Filip Boe Olsen, but finally managed to hold the draw. But in the end, the 3.5: 0.5 victory was "celebrated".

The pairing between the Czech Republic and Israel ended in 1-3 and the match on the last board between Turkey and Slovakia ended in 2-2, giving Turkey their long-awaited and well-deserved first team point.

The U18 female was in no way inferior to the open when it came to the tension and importance of the round. Poland confirmed their favorite status with a strong 2-0 win over Slovenia's first team.

The Polish side Julia Antolak and Oliwia Kiolbasa are now the undisputed leaders of the table, but there are still a number of strong teams waiting. . . Germany 1 could not build up any pressure on Poland, as Jana Schneider had to give up her game and Fiona Sieber's victory was only 1-1. Slovenia 2 did better than their colleagues from the 1st team. On board 1 Zala Urh could beat Judit Egyed and so a draw on the second board was enough to secure the team victory.

1-1 was also the result of Germany 2 against Germany 4: Lara Schulze is still in good form despite the unfortunate draw yesterday. Teodora Rogozenco is still a bit unhappy at the moment, but will certainly find her way back into the tournament in the coming rounds.

A big surprise occurred in the fight Germany 3 against Turkey. Here, too, the German double could not exceed a 1-1, as Antonia Ziegenfuss had looked it up against Gulenay Aydin. While Ann-Marie Mütsch won her game. Today all German teams played 1-1! On table 6 Croatia lost against Slovakia 1. 5:0.5, while Israel and Serbia played 1:1 and Serbia almost withdrew from the race for the medals.

In the U12 Open the German teams had a very difficult day except for Germany 1, who had a day off and enjoyed life in the Aqua Park. Turkey continued its good run. Magnus Ermitsch and Nikolai Nitsche had to give up their games. A little hope sprang up when Marius Deuer scored the second point on board 2.

Now it was up to Bennet Hagner, board 1 at Germany 3, to save the fight into a draw. He unleashed a very sharp position in which he objectively always stood badly. But what could he do, in the end only one victory mattered! But CM Gokcek defended himself and finally Bennet had to agree to the draw. The pairing between Germany 2 and the Czech Republic was similarly close. Bao Bui won his very tactically played game, but it should remain the only victory of the team. Dominik Laux at 2 managed a draw. Jonas Eilenberg, however, had to admit his defeat against Vlastimil Babula after a non-optimal strategic decision. On the 4th board Nikita Schubert fought like a lion, but today his Czech opponent proved to be too strong. After 61 moves in a peasant final with a pawn less the game was over!

Israel did not give themselves any nakedness and won against Belarus 3:1 and thus remains ahead of Turkey. France passed Germany 1 with a 2.5 win over the Czech Republic, but it should not be forgotten that Germany 1 plays one more match than France.

In the U12 female the incredible happened, a small repetition of yesterday's U18 female pairing Poland against Germany 2, could be observed in the match Hungary against Germany 3. Margarete Wagner completely overplayed Hungary's seemingly unbeatable board 1, had one more figure and a pawn, and then she ran into a stalemate that is unrivalled. But their coach Thomas Pähtz will rebuild them and make them fit for the next rounds. In the end, Hungary won 1.5: 0.5. The same result was achieved in the match between Germany 1 and France, but this time in favor of the hosts, so that the teams Hungary and Germany 1 are still on an equal footing. Germany 3 set another exclamation point, with a 1.5 win over the Czech team favored after Elo.