Romanian WGM Mihaela Sandu (2300) maintains the lead at the 16th European Individual Women’s Chess Championship 2015 in Chakvi, Georgia.
Sandu is definitely the biggest surprise of this year’s edition as she managed to score 5 wins in a row in a very strong competition. In the 5th round she defeated Georgian IM Lela Javakhishvili (2472) with White. Javakhishvili went into time pressure, and after few blunders was forced to resign.
Sandu and Javakhishvili
The overall impression of the 5th round is that it was very intense and fighting. Eight out of ten games in the top boards finished with the decisive results.
IM Nino Batsiashvili (GEO 2473) defeated IM Ekatarina Kovalevskaya (RUS 2450), while WGM Olga Girya (RUS 2479) recovered from yesterday’s loss and defeated IM Alina Kashlinskaya (RUS 2423).
The 2013 European Champion IM Hoang Thanh Trang (HUN 2472) was better than WIM Ulviyya Fataliyeva (AZE 2331), while the 2000-Champion GM Natalia Zhukova (UKR 2456) defeated WFM Maria Gevorgyan (ARM 2190).
After 5 rounds Sandu leads with 5 points, followed by Batsiashvili with 4.5 points. Guseva, Girya, Bodnaruk, Savina, Hoang and Zhukova have 4 points, etc.
Top pairings of the 6th round are:
Batsiashvili vs Sandu, Savina vs Girya, Bodnaruk vs Hoang, Guseva vs Zhukova, etc.
Round 6 is scheduled on 24th May, 2015 at 3.00 pm Georgian time. News by ECU.
