With only seven rounds at the European Club Cup, a team can hardly afford to slip up. However, this is what happened to the best team by rating, SuperChess, in round four against the team sponsored by Turkish Airlines.

So before the fifth round, there were only four teams left who had won all four previous matches: the Indian-Chinese combination Alkaloid, with Arjun Erigaisi and Wei Yi on the top boards, the team of the Hungarian Tuxera Aquaprofit Nagykanizsai Sakk Klub with the Ukrainians Pavel Eljanov and Andrei Volokitin, Turkish Airlines with Dmitry Andreikin and the Iranians Parham Maghsoodloo and Amin Tabatabaei, and Novy Bor with Vincent Keymer and the Indians Vidit Gujrathi and Pentala Harikrishna, among others.

These four teams logically contested the top matches in the fifth round, with the pairings matching up Alkaloid against Turkish Airlines and Aquaprofit against Novy Bor.

Alkaloid and Turkish Airlines drew 3-3 in a hard-fought match. Arjun Erigaisi scored a full point on the top board against Dmitry Andreikin.

In the live rating list, the Indian grandmaster has thus passed the 2800 mark in the live ratings list. As Fabiano Caruana's performance at the US Championships has also pushed him back above 2800, there are currently four players above 2800 - apart from Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura.

The Ruy Lopez Breyer Variation

Pavel Eljanov explains in depth what Gyula Breyer already saw in 1911 and what became an opening choice of the likes of Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand or Carlsen. The Breyer Variation, which is characterised by the knight retreat to b8.

Yu Yangyi also scored for the Macedonians against Amin Tabatabaei. On the other side, Parham Maghsoodloo against Wei Yi and Volodar Murzin against Narayanah levelled the score with their victories.

In the second top match, Novy Bor clearly won 4½-1½ against Aquaprofit.

Vidit, Harikrishna, David Anton and Thai Dai Van Nguyen scored the winning points for Novy Bor. Benjamin Gledura scored for the Hungarians.

At board one, Pavel Eljanov's planned kingside attack was a complete failure.

Vincent Keymer, who had won all four of his previous games, was the only player to sign a draw in this match. In the end, the German number one had to defend an endgame with rook against rook and knight against Andrei Volokitin.

Novy Bor are now the last remaining team which have not given up a single match point.

Chartres played against Rishon Le Zion. On board one, we got to see the classic encounter between former World Championship candidates and top ten players Vasyl Ivanchuk and Boris Gelfand, who both still enjoy chess. This game ended in a draw. Daniel Dardha and Christian Bauer decided the match in favour of the French.

Werder Bremen won their match against Paterna and St. Pauli won against Drejtesia-Trokadero, both by a narrow 3½-2½ score.

The Keymer Variation - 1.Nf3 d5 2.e3

This video course features the ins-and-outs of the possible setups Black can choose. You’ll learn the key concepts and strategies needed to add this fantastic opening to your repertoire. An easy-to-learn and yet venomous weapon.

Lara Schulze for Werder

St. Pauli with Aljoscha Feuerstack on board 1

SV Erkenschwick lost to Lund SK with the same result. HSK Lister Turm clearly won their match against Differdange, while SV Mülheim-Nord lost just as clearly against Skakklubben Nordkalotten.

König Tegel celebrated a resounding victory against St Benildus

The strict team of referees

Round 5 results

...42 matches

Standings after round 5

...84 teams

All games

Women's Cup

After four rounds, only Tajfun Ljubljana had won all their matches in the Women's Cup. Zhu Jiner and Olga Badelka, the Slovenians' second and third board players, had won all their games so far. Ljubljana were followed by four teams two points behind.

The Neo-London-System - The sharper alternative to the popular London System

The Neo-London System offers many new, creative possibilities to present your opponents with serious problems in the early stages of the game.

Dinara Wagner, left, for SuperChess

Ljubljana faced SuperChess in the top match and narrowly lost the encounter 1½:2½. The match was decided on the fourth board, where Marsel Efroimski won against Laura Unuk.

On the second board, Garuda defeated the Red Star Data Lab.

Garuda

The Solingen SG B team had to play against the number one seed Monte-Carlo and lost by a 3½-½ score. Solingen A drew with Gambit Bonnevoie.

The strong B-team from Solingen

Round 5 results

Improve your Tactics

The aim of this course is to help you understand how to make tactical opportunities arise as well as to sharpen your tactical vision - these selected lectures will help to foster your overall tactical understanding.

...9 matches

Standings after round 5

...18 teams

All games

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