As the rounds go by the matches get harder and harder for the teams at the top of the table. The fourth round has proved itself as a tough test for the favourites. At the first table the leader India has played against Turkey Turkuaz. ( by the way Turkuaz means turquoise, a color which basically takes its name from the word “Turkish” in French possibly referring to the color of a gem sold in the Turkish basars in the 16th century) In the clash of two FMs on the first board Priyadharshan exploited the underdevelopment of black pieces, forced a pawn gain and after some adventures leading to a winning endgame he took the full point. On the second board Das Debashi just took the offered materials by White and after a good defensive play and some small tactics he carried the India to a 2-0 lead. However Engin Topak from Turkey Turkuaz has shown again that he is in excellent form by beating his opponent pretty formidably in a Slav to tighten the gap to 1 point. As the hard-fought game on the second board which seemed like advantageous for Black at a certain point after some ups and downs ended in a draw, the score was in the end slightly in India’s favor again: 2.5-1.5 Let’s see if India’s winning streak will be stopped by a team in the remaining rounds...

The second table has staged another fierce battle: Azerbaijan-Georgia. On the first two boards two draws were agreed after some interesting play. The fourth board saw Guliyev(AZE) winning after nice maneuvering in the middlegame, however Lortkipanidze(GEO) tricked his opponent in a knight vs bishop endgame to save the match for Georgia: 2-2

   The third table saw Russia playing against Armenia. In this heavyweight match the glory was with the Russians, though by a small margin: 2.5-1.5.  The nice tactical trap by GM Ter Sahakyan on the first board and the draw on the second board was not enough for Armenia, since top-seeded Russia is homogenously strong on all boards and managed to win the last two boards to take the full point.

   As we go down the pairings we come accross a tough match again. Hungary was the obvious favourite before the match on the fourth table but Turkey Red proved to be resilient. On 1st and 4th boards Emiroğlu and Ererdem registered important draws for Turkey Red after sound play against their strong opponents and the exchange of beatiful wins on 2nd and 3rd boards meant a good result for the "underdog", Turkey Red: 2-2! Nice effort!

  Other notable results today were 4-0 wins of England, Turkey White, Turkey Girls Red(!) and Sri Lanka. Turkey Girls White has beaten her opponent Turkmenistan and continued to get good results. Pay attention to the tournament reports, the strength of these girls was mentioned by your reporter before!

  Next round is gonna start at 10 o’clock tomorrow! Don’t miss the hard fights between the young masters and also the coming heavybattle: India vs. Russia!