In the fourth round of ECC the only one match between the teams with 2700+ was played in Open section while the other top-rated clubs had comparatively easy life.

Economist-SGSEU Saratov and Saint-Petersburg Chess Federation were fighting on the first board for six hours and as a result the defending champions outplayed their opponents. 

Vadim Zvjaginsev brought an important point to his team by wining against Igor Lysyj, who replaced today Evgeny Alekseev. Alexander Morozevich was the last one to finish the game against Nikita Vitiugov but, despite his great efforts, didn’t manage to equalize the score in the match.

Tomsk-400, SOCAR Azerbaijan didn’t leave any chances to their opponents and won their matches with 6-0 score against Tammer-Shakki and Schachgesellschaft Zürich respectively.

After fourth round Saint-Petersburg Chess Federation and Tomsk-400 share the first place with 8 points.  Ashdot, Economist-SGSEU Saratov, SOCAR Azerbaijan, Ugra, G-Team Novy-Bor, Gros Xake Taldea, Hapoel Kfar Saba share the third place with 6 points each.

Monte-Carlo won the fourth match in a row and keeps leading in the Women section.  Ashdod club, which played quite successfully in the previous rounds and shared the second place, lost all four games against the leader. Ludmila Tsifanskaya had very good chances to hold the balance in the game against Pia Cramling but made a mistake in the rook endgame. It was remarkable that the identical technically drawish endgame happened in the game Morozevich-Vitiugov, which was played in the open section same time, but Russian GM Nikita Vitiugov had no problems to make a draw at the board.

Tatiana Shadrina brought the victory to her club Ugra as she managed to outplay Tatiana Ivanova-Skripova on the fourth board. The same situation happened in the match between AVS and Mika where Lela Javakhishvili was the only one to score a full point in the game against Ukrainian champion Mariya Muzychuk while the others made draws. As a result defending champions AVS lost the third match and placed 7thafter four rounds.

The official tournament web page is http://www.ecc2012-chesseilat.com/

Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
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