Second round of the 17th European Individual Women’s Chess Championship 2016 was played yesterday in Mamaia, Romania.
After the exciting and shaky start, the favorites were safe this time and stood up to the task.
On the top board German #1 IM Elisabeth Paehtz (2489) defeated Russian WGM Elmira Mirzoeva (2344), while on the second board WGM Aleksandra Goryachkina (RUS 2485) defeated WGM Petra Papp (HUN 2342).
Poland #1 GM Monica Socko (2469) defeated WGM Adriana Nikolova (BUL 2331), while the former World Champion GM Anna Ushenina (UKR 2450) drew with Black pieces with IM Ana Matnadze (ESP 2332).
IM Nino Batsiashvili (GEO 2476) and WGM Elena-Luminita Cosma (ROU 2333) shared the point, the same as WGM Olga Girya (RUS 2443) and IM Cristina-Adela Foisor (ROU 2322).
The top seed GM Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL 2507), after a draw in the first round won her game against WFM Aydan Hojjatova (AZE 2300) and justified the role of the first favourite.
Russia has only two player with 2/2, out of 19 participants in Mamaia, the same as Georgia who sent 11 representatives to the Championship, while the host representatives didn’t have a great start, with only two out of 12 players on 1.5 points.
The top pairings of round 3 are:
Arakhamia-Grant vs Paehtz, Goryachkina vs Arabidze, Zimina vs Socko, T. Gara vs Gaponenko, Shvayger vs Khukhashvili, etc.
