And that counts especially for the Turkish women team in their seconds round match.  After a quick loss by Nisan on board 4, Ebru was able to equalize just a short time later. Hilal's time however was running low and also our first board Kardelen had to face a rather difficult position. After a couple of blunders Hilal finally had to ground the arms and our hope was focused on board one.

That hope seemed to die a tiny bit too quickly when the following moves arised on the board:



A very deceisive moment appeared. This position is no doubt better for white as black suffers a destructive attack on the f-file. 23...Qe5 Kardelen lost control. Later on she admitted that she could not find any reasonable defense and frankly speaking that is not an easy task facing such pressure in time trouble... (23... Re5! however would hold the black's camp. 24. fxg6 fxg6 25. Rxf6 Bxg2+ 26. Kxg2 Rg5+! a move - easily to be overlooked. From that point of view of course I cannot blame her for missing that as we also did not find this tricky source during our analyses in the evening.
27. Qg3 Rxg3+ 28. hxg3 Rxf6 29. Rxf6 Qe5 30. Rf4 and white is still better.) (23... Qc6 a move that we actually considered later that evening is not satisfying either...} 24. Ne2 Ne4 25. Rf3 Qc5 (25... f6 26. fxg6 hxg6 27. Nf4 g5 28. Nh5+ white is better) 26. Rh3 h5 27. Nf4  + - ) 24. Re2 Qc5 25. fxg6 Bxg2+ despair... (25... fxg6 26. Rxe8 Rxe8 (26... Nxe8 27. Qe7+  +  - ) 27. Qxf6+  +  - ) 26. Rxg2 fxg6 27. Qg5 (27. Rxf6 Rxf6 28. Ne4 Rxe4 29. Qxe4 + - is a good moment to resign!) 27... Re5 28. Qd2 d5 29. Rfg1 d4 30. Ne2 Nd5 31. b4 (31. Bxg6 hxg6 (31... Ne3 32. Nxd4 Nxg2 33. Qxg2 Kh8 34. Bf7 + -) 32. Rxg6+ Kf7 33. Qh6 would finish this torture!) 31... Qa7? 32. Bxg6 Ne3 33. Be4+ (33. Nxd4 Nxg2 34. Qxg2 + - and we reach a similar position as mentioned after 31. Bxg6...) 33... Nxg2 34. Rxg2+ My hopes slowly returned as the material distribution became a little bit more balanced...At this moment both players had very little time remaining and another 5 moves to go... Kh8 35. Ng3 Re7 36. Qd3 Qd7 37. Kg1 Rfe8 38. Rd2 Rd8 39. Nf5 Rg8+ 40. Kh1?? Fortune favours the bold! How often have we experienced a final mistake at move 40 in our chess lives? I would say rather often, and even among top players...What can I say, today's her, my...our lucky day! Qxf5! and our hero of the day won her match later on in an easy winning endgame and saving the match
2-2! 0-1


Our men did another great job beating Algeria 4-0! The hero of the day was Ege Koksal, beating Algeria's top seed Haddouche Mohammed.

The following diagramm shows how he dinished off his opponent in a superb fashion!

Position after move 22. White is a pawn up however suffers several problems on the black squares. 22... h5 finding the weakness in white's camp- the night on g3! 23. h4 Ng4 24. Nh1? if this is a move that must be played, it means no good. Basically it admits the white's side problems and therefore only pushes black's ego! (24. Rf3 seems much more logical to me as it is a well-known fact that pieces should be changed when being under a strong attack! Nxf2 (24... Rxf3 25. gxf3 Nf6 26. Be3 pawn's advantage would prevail.) 25. R1xf2 Rxf3 26. Qxf3 Bxf2+ 27. Qxf2 Rxd2 28. Qxd2 Qxg3 24... Rd7 preparing to double the rocks on the f-file. 25. Bc3 the first deceisive mistake! (25. Bg5 Rdf7 26. Rf3) 25... Rf4 (25... Rdf7 26. Bxd4 exd4) 26. Bxd4 exd4 27. c5 Kh7 a good prophylactical move! (27... Rdf7 was another good alternative.) 28. Qxa6?! too greedy! totally neglecting white's camp by taking a humble useless pawn... d3! 29. Qa5? (29. Rxd3 Rxd3 30. Qxd3 Ne5 followed by Nf3...) 29... Ne3!! - + 30. fxe3 Rxf1+ 31. Kxf1 d2 32. Nf2 d1=Q+ 33. Nxd1 Rxd1+ 34. Kf2 Rd2+ 35. Ke1 Rxg2 36. Kd1 Qg4+ 37. Kc1 Qe2 0-1