IM Nino Batsiashvili (GEO 2473) defeated the leader WGM Mihaela Sandu (ROU 2300) in the 6th round of the 16th European Individual Women’s Chess Championship 2015 in Chakvi and took the sole lead.
The surprise of the tournament Mihaela Sandu, who had 5/5 is finally stopped by the Georgian hope, Batsiashvili, in the biggest encounter of the 6th round. The King’s Indian was played and after the opening the position was equal. Heading to the time pressure Sandu made few inaccuracies and got into worse position. She sacrificed a Bishop in the endgame to avoid the White’s pressure, but this was just a hopeless try to make a draw. Batsiashvili played correctly and celebrated the victory which brought her in the sole lead.
IM Anastasia Savina (RUS 2417) and WGM Olga Girya (RUS 2479) drew on the second board, as well as IM Anastasia Bodnaruk (RUS 2402) and Hoang Thanh Trang (HUN 2472), and IM Marina Guseva (RUS 2391) and GM Natalia Zhukova (UKR 2456).
IM Ekatarina Kovalevskaya (RUS 2450) achieved an important victory with White against the 2nd seed GM Bela Khotenashvili (2527), while the 3rd seed GM Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL 2512) defeated WGM Karina Szczepkowska-Horowska (POL 2412) and slowly returned among the leaders.
Standings after 6 rounds:
1 Batsiashvili 5.5
2 Sandu 5
3-12 Kovalevskaya, Guseva, Girya, Stefanova, Bodnaruk, Savina, Arabidze, Hoang, Zhukova and Melia 4.5, etc.
The top pairings of the 7th round are: Hoang vs Batsiashvili, Sandu vs Stefanova, Girya vs Arabidze, Zhukova vs Savina, Melia vs Bodnaruk, Guseva vs Kovalevskaya, etc.
Round 7 is scheduled on 25th May, 2015 at 3.00 pm local time, after which there is a free day.
More information at the Official Website
