European Team Championships: England Round 6 Report.

 In round 6 the English Men faced a tough match against Poland. They slumped to their worst defeat of the tournament, losing 3.5-0.5.

 Michael Adams played out 11 moves of theory on the Black side of the Spanish Exchange variation before agreeing to a draw with Bartosz Socho (2646).

 On board two Gawain seemed to be caught in opening preparation in a sharp line of the Scotch by Grzegorz Gajewski (2573). After consuming a lot of time on the clock he found himself worse in a tricky ending. He fought hard under time pressure and ending up with a Rook vs Rook a+c pawns. This is a theoretical draw, although a very difficult one indeed and especially so when short on time. Gawain was unable to find the perfect defence and resigned on move 60.

 Nick Pert's difficult tournament continued when he faced Radoslaw Wojtaszek (2635) on board 3. After finding himself with a worse position in an ..a6 slav Nick decided to grab a 'poisoned' pawn that left his Queen trapped.

 Even England's top scorer was unable to lift the team, Mark Hebden sacked a pawn early on against Mateusz Bartel (2608) but Bartel defended well and Mark's initiative evaporated leaving him a clear pawn down. Bartel converted the advantage confidentally.

 It was a similiar story of woe for the women as they went down 3.5-0.5 against Azerbaijan. For some reason the website does not have all of the moves of these games - I am not in Greece (sadly) and have no other access to the games.

 I only have the first 26 moves of the game on top board between Zelnab Mamedjarova (2326) and Jovanka Houska on top board but it seems that Zelnab managed to get a good position with some creative play early on. Zelnab went on to win on move 35.

 On board two Dagne Ciuksyte played the mainline against Ilaha Kadimova's Caro Kan. She then embarked on an interesting combination left her with two pawns for the exchange. It looks to me like she shouldn't be worse but the remaining moves are not given. She lost on move 65.

 Ingrid Lauterbach has had an impressively solid tournament on board 3 and in round 6 equalised quickly as Black in a c3 Sicilian. She drew with Turkan Mamedjarova (2250) in 65 moves (again we're missing the final 50 moves of this game)

 Board 4 is the only game where I have all of the moves. Sabrina Chevannes seemed to be doing well against Nargiz Umudova (2188) with an extra pawn for not much compensation. Unfortantely she allowed her opponent some Kingside pressure and this, coupled with a strong passed c-pawn, ultimately led to her defeat.

 A very disappointing day for the English - let's hope they can bounce back (yes I know, I've already seen the results - you can too at www.greekchess.com/euro2007 )

 I will update again tomorrow. Don't forget to check out my earlier reports/annotated games if you haven't already.