A review of the second round.

On the first day we had three wins for whie, today "only" 2!

The round started with a blackout of grandmaster.

Halkias - Krasenkow (Position after the rare move 7.Qc1) Black overreacts and loses a piece:

7...Nc6 (more solid is 7...Bg4 with the same idea of exerting pressure against the d4 pawn) 8.Bh6 Bxh6?! (8...0-0!?) 9.Qxh6 Nxd4?? (The only move is 9...Qd6. Perhaps Black has forgotten about the long castle? ) 10.0-0-0 and Black gave up.

It looks like the game influenced some players, who prefered to play safe on this strange day. The second victim of white dominance was Gabriel Gähwiler, who sacrificed the pawn, but couldn't develop enough counterplay.

Fecker - Gähwiler (Position after 21.Rxd4)

21...Rfc8?! It is not a good idea to allow White to capture on e6 without any counterplay. Much better was 21...Kg7! and Black is ready to challenge White on the f-file or play Bf6 if possible. 22.Ra4 Rc7 23.Ne2 Bf8?! 24.Bxe6! fxe6 25.b3 with decisive advantage.

After two rounds, the young players Tobias Kölle and Moritz Weishäutel are in the lead with 1,5 points.