The third round of the European Team Chess Championship 2025 was played today, and matches are getting tougher each day.
Only two teams maintained the perfect score in the Open section, co-leading with 6 match points (each): defending European Team Chess Champions – Serbia, and Greece.
The team of Serbia defeated France, thanks to GM Aleksandar Indjic’s (SRB, 2618) victory against GM Maxime Lagarde (FRA, 2617). Indjic misplayed the opening and allowed Lagarde to gain an advantage with black pieces, but the French grandmaster made a mistake and blundered a piece in the 26th move to resign immediately afterwards. Very solid games on the top two boards finished in draws, while GM Velimir Ivic (SRB, 2628) missed a beautiful mating motive against GM Mahel Boyer (FRA, 2532), who later escaped from the mating net with stunning stalemate tactics.
Greece took a narrow 2.5-1.5 victory against Slovenia to keep the perfect score in the tournament. GM Antonios Pavlidis (GRE, 2579) was victorious against IM Matic Lavrencic (SLO, 2479). The game was equal, but the Slovenian made a mistake by offering the Queens’s trade. Pavlidis accepted it, and showcased a perfect endgame technique to bring his team a match point since the games on the first three boards ended in draws.
The team of Netherlands defeated Romania, Azerbaijan won against Poland, and Ukraine prevailed against Croatia, with all three matches finishing in final 2.5-1.5 result. Scoring 5 match points each, Netherlands, Azerbaijan and Ukraine closely follow the leading duo.
Three teams scored third consecutive win in the Women’s event to share the lead: Poland, Bulgaria, and Germany.
Poland scored a convincing 3-1 victory over Armenia, with IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya (POL, 2394) outplaying WIM Mariam Mkrtchyan (ARM, 2318), and GM Monika Socko (POL, 2356) defeated WIM Susanna Gaboyan (ARM, 2165). The first and third board games were drawn.
Bulgaria narrowly won the match against Switzerland, thanks to the victory of WGM Nadya Toncheva (BUL, 2332) in the game against WGM Ghazal Hakimifard (SUI, 2206). Quite solid games on the other three boards were drawn, bringing Bulgaria a step closer towards the goal of defending the European Team Champion title.
Germany took an important win and made a major upset against the top-seeded Georgia 1. WGM Hanna Marie Klek (GER, 2328) outplayed GM Nino Batsiashvili (GEO, 2469) after gaining a decisive advantage in the early middlegame. GM Bella Khotenashvili (GEO, 2416) missed her chances to keep the clear advantage against WGM Kateryna Dolzhykova (GER, 2300) and then made a couple of mistakes in the time trouble, but the game finished in a draw, as well as the games on the first and on the third board.
Azerbaijan played a draw against France in a very tense match, while Ukraine narrowly defeated Greece. With the score of 5 match points (each), Azerbaijan, France and Ukraine, trail the leaders by one match point.
Interesting match between France and Azerbaijan was marked with the mate-in-one blunder which happened on the fourth board. In a winning position, WIM Ayan Allaverdiyeva (AZE, 2220) blundered mate-in-one against IM Pauline Guichard (FRA, 2330). The French representative spotted it and played the move, with both players staying seated at the board shocked with the unexpected outcome.
The fourth round brings direct encounters between the leaders, with Serbia vs Greece as the top match in the Open section, and Poland vs Bulgaria, Germany vs Azerbaijan, and France vs Ukraine on the top boards of the Women’s event.
Live broadcast of the games, together with commentaries by GM Alojzije Jankovic and WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili can be followed through the ECU TV platform, or ECU YouTube channel.
All results, rankings and pairings can be found here.