Four of the five groups still have one player with a full house after four rounds. In the A-group, IM Aleksandr Domalchuk-Jonasson leads with 3,5 points but gets bonus points for the finish of the tournament!
Lets run through the groups one by one!
A-group U20
The top seed Aleksandr Domalchuk-Jonasson is still leading and some might say he established some dominance with a super high-class finish in his 4th round game despite being close to dropping a draw in the game. Aleksandr allowed his opponent to Queen…
…only to play 47.Ne5! and remarkably black has no way to stop mate or lose material! Study like geometry. The final sequence is worth playing through.
Aleksandr leads with 3,5 points but Benedikt Briem and Luijten Apol are right behind with 3 points. They play a vital game in the 5th round to see who can compete with Aleksandr.
B-group U17
In the B-group Norwegian #4 seed William Alexander Olsen is still going strong with 4 out of 4. William had the white pieces against Marek Religa and produced one of the moves of the tournament so far!
30.Nd6!! thoroughly deserves the two exclamation marks! Although he didn’t follow up 100% correctly, 30.Nd6 was the only correct move in the position and a fantastic find! Religa had some chances to save the draw but in a tough time situation he missed it. The study like 34.Kg1!! would have been a fantastic find, similar to a famous Kg1 in Khismatullin vs Eljanov.
Aku Salonen from Finland seems like the only player who can challenge William and they will face each other in a vital 5th round game.
C-group U15
The C-group is another group that has a surprising….you guessed it….Finnish player with a full house, 4 points out of 4! Eli Asikainen is the 5th seed in the group but is leading it without conceding even half a point!
Eli found a classic tactic in this position:
15…Nxg2! should be on the radar of good players as 16.Kxg2 Bh3+! 17.Kxh3 Qxf3+ flushes the king out. Eli forced resignation in a few moves.
D-group U13
Another Finnish player is leading the D-group with 4 out of 4! Unsurprisingly the Finnish team is leading the unofficial „total points“ competition between the Nordic countries!! Radmir Vorobyov is looking good but his only competition is the Norwegian Isai Sivaparan but as fate would have it they will face each other in a vital 5th round game!
E-group U11
Zhang Yiming is having a great tournament in the E-group…4 out of 4 and of course he is Finnish! Three players have 3 points and Zhang could go far towards the gold if he beats Norwegian Michael Mortensen in the 5th round!
All groups will conclude with a double-round Super-Sunday in Borganes!
