Table of Contents Page Both pre-tournament favourites make it to the Final 1 Round Robin, Final round 2 Modalfa v Computerland, Semifinal 3 The Italian Semifinal 4
Tennis Club Parioli v Computerland Wroclaw

Yesterday it was semifinal day. One Italian team would certainly make it to the final, as the two teams were playing head-to-head. Right from the start, Parioli seemed to have slightly the better of the exchanges. They led by 14 after the first quarter and by 16 at half-time. Then, the tide seemed to turn as Allegra took over the lead early in the third segment. They were not to enjoy this position very long, as a few boards later Parioli came along again to lead by four at the end of the quarter. It looked as if it was everybody’s match with only 12 boards to play, but four boards later, it suddenly was all over. Parioli had managed to score 41 IMPs from these first four boards, and although Allegra did well to respond by scoring 21 from the next four, time was running in favour of the holders, who could even afford to lose a further 10 IMPs on the final board. The score in this match: 102-86 to Parioli.

In the other semifinal match, things were less spectacular. Modalfa took an early lead of 17 IMPs after the first quarter, but for the next 24 boards it was all Computerland. They won 46-2 in the second quarter and added 22-6 in the third to lead by 82-39 with 12 boards to go. The Dutch won the final segment 29-17, but this did not change the outcome of the match: 99-68 was the size of the Polish victory.

Last night, we saw the first 12 boards of the final. As expected, the match is still very close, but the holders have taken a small early advantage, leading by 8 with 36 more to go.