In the first board encounter between Eltaj Safarli and Bassem Amin, in the Spanish, white exploited the only open file on the board, a file and converted the advantage into a winning endgame. Chao Li was another player who defeated his opponent, i.e. Tornike Sanikidze, thanks to the latter's error which was swiftly converted. The game between Zhigalko and Braun ended as a draw in an advanced Caro-Kann. Ante Brkic defeated Truong Son Nguyen in the French, where in the endgame white won a pawn and then converted it.

In the encounter between Leon Hoyos and So, white was close to victory but in the final position (left) despite the material advantage white had to been content with a draw since white could could not be activated as you may see from the left diagram. White could not make any progress due to the threat of Rf6-Rh6.  38. Qh4 Bf4 3.Qh3 Be5 had to be played.









The game between David Howell and Hrant Melkumyan was one of the longest battles of the round in which white gained an early development advantage. At the position you see from the diagram in the right, black should play 24...Bh5 25.Rf6 Bg4 26.Bf7 Rf7 27.Rf7 Kf7 28.hg4 Nc5 should be better than what happened in the game according to computers. In the game Qe5 allowed white to gain two minor pieces against a rook and a pawn. The fight lasted much longer but the British grandmaster patiently converted.

The first upset of the round was between Chen Lin and Gupta Abhijeet while the other upset came from the tenth board where Stupak won against the top seed Mamedov, who remained at fifty per cent.











Black played 25...Nd5 in the game between Rombaldoni and Iturrizaga where black is already in dire straits. 26.Qd5 1-0 (since after the Rh8 there is no defense against the mate)


















In the junior girls' section, Dronavalli and Muzychuk made a quick and quiet draw while the second board encounter between Majdan and Abrahamyan ended as a victory for the latter after a comfortable opening and when black knight arrived to e5 things started looking bad white and the game ended as a loss for white. This meant Tatev Abrahamyan became the new leader in the girls' section. Dauletova was the faster side in the Dragon Sicilian to make the attack first and won a nice game to take the shared second place. Mikadze despite obtaining the initiative in Classical French against Isgandarova would not deliver the decisive blow, hence, the game ended as a draw.



Highest scoring Turkish player for the moment Kübra Öztürk drew her game with Muminova despite experiencing some difficulties during the game and now has 3 points.