At last every game of the second round has been played, the players having defeated even the IGS server mantineance. Let’s see what happened!

Finland 3-1 Belgium
Finland wins again, but also collects the first defeat on board 4, in a game characterized by an uncommon taisha variation. Of note also the neat kill that ended the game on board 3.

Austria 3 – 1 Denmark
Very strong performance by the Austrian team, who was probably the underdog here (last year Den won 3-1). Unfortunately board 4 wasn’t played, we sincerely hope that there won’t be many more games awarded by forfeit this year.

Israel 3 – 1 Slovakia
Third consecutive win for Israel! They are putting a good deal of pressure on Finland, in preparation for their match on round 5. Once more Slovakia played well and was close to obtaining a draw against a stronger opponent.

Slovenia 0-4 Switzerland
First victory and first points for Switzerland, in a crucial match for the battle to avoid relegation. Slovenia seemed to have a bad day, losing all four games against opponents of lower rank. Hopefully this defeat won’t diminish their nice fighting spirit. A good example to see the fighting spirit in action is board 4, which deserves to be called “A Game of Kos”.

United Kingdom 2 – 2 Serbia
Once more, the Mitic brothers are undefeated, with Nikola edging Bei Ge by just 0.5 points! The UK was saved by Des Cann and Jon Diamond’s close victories on boards 3 and 4.

Here you can find the pairings, games, and complete results.