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.
The first decisive match in the U12 Open tournament was the one on board 4 between Germany 1 and Germany 2: Nikita Schubert, German U12 runner-up, won his match against Peter Grabs, who arrived at short notice, thanks to a well-prepared bishop's victim on a6, who made the white b-pawn unstoppable. But Jeremy Hommer (2nd board) equaled in a wild game against Dominik Laux, so everything seemed to be open again. On the other boards, however, the signs were set early. Franziskus Leopold Wagner exploited a technical winning position in the final with 2 bishops against a rook against Bao Bui. . . A late revenge for the defeat at the German Individual Championship U12.
Then Leonardo Costa won for Germany 1. He early had one less pawn for compensation. This compensation brought the pawn back, and in the end Leonardo was able to push an indestructible position to profit. At the end the winner of the duel was Germany 1, thanks to a 2.5:1.5 victory!
Turkey again provided very strong resistance. Board 1 was lost to Israel, even though the live broadcast showed a clearly better position for the Turkish player. The author of these lines saw only one very disappointed and wildly gesticulating Turkish player running out of the tournament hall. Board 2 won Turkey thanks to a strong performance by Taha Ozkan. But on board 3 and 4 Israel won with Guy Levin and Benny Aizenberg. 3-1 for Israel.
The French team quickly won their two whiteboards against the Czech Republic, giving them a comfortable 2-0 lead. Even though things got a bit shaky in between, the French remained successful with 2.5:1.5 and thus continued the positive trend set by the girls.
Belarus, as mentioned in the previous report, entered the tournament today. Against Hungary it was not quite enough to win: a 2-2 was the final score.