Team Ireland faced Team Ecuador in Round 7 today. The signs were good before this round, since Team Ecuador were struggling to have a consistent form. They rotate their players often, and only Board 1 and 4 were in positive balance. The team started the round very strong on these specific boards which gave an edge. On Board 1, Conor E Murphy gained some advantage in the opening. On Board 4 there was a considerable advantage from the beginning, so we expected these boards to win. The rest two boards were complicated, according to computers, they were equal positions. Positions, however, can be deceiving. When players are getting tired, or having a time trouble, everything changes. On Board 1, the advantage has gone, it ended up in a draw. Alexander Baburin overplayed his Ecuadorian counterpart in a positional play, and he secured a win. On Board 3, players were very defiant, playing with 96% accuracy on both sides. A well deserved draw was the outcome. On Board 4, Tom O’Gorman manage to gradually increase his advantage, and he won. The final result was: Ireland – Ecuador 3-1.

We present here the Board 4 game which was very instructive. The motto: do not attack when there is no support. The attacking pieces just die in the cross fire without achieving any of the goals.