Private Pähtz on the attack at the NATO Championship

The 18TH NATO Chess Championship is taking place from September 2nd to 8th 2007 in the Gendarmerie Schools Command in Beytepe, Ankara (Turkey). The tournament follows the structure laid down by the Regulations of the International Military Chess Committee (IMCC) and is a seven-round individual Swiss tournament, with the four highest-scoring players from each country counting towards the team score. All employees of a participating nation’s Defence Department are regarded as potential team members (civilians included). Teams will consist of a maximum of eight people: one captain, one team official and six players.

Dress code: according to the rules "formal Service uniforms are to be worn at the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, the final banquet and when otherwise authorised. The wearing of the combat dress uniforms is discouraged during official functions. Civilian clothes may be worn when chess games are in progress."

A group photo of participating teams and officials

The teams march into the playing hall – Olympic style, but with a smarter step

The German team, headed by a lady (IM Elisabeth Pähtz, third from right)

Formal start of round one, with second seed Lorenz Drabke of Germany, rated 2416, facing Neset Daler of Turkey, rated 2029

Top seed Private First Class (and IM) Elisabeth Pähtz, Germany, rated 2457, facing First Lieutenant Rytis Ermalis, Lithuania, rated 2039 (Elisabeth won)

Colonel Harm Theo Wagenaar, Netherlands, rated 2121, faces Second Lieutenant Huseyin Ince, unrated, playing for Turkey

The setup in the playing hall in the Gendarmerie Schools Command in Beytepe

Elisabeth Pähtz vs Captain Devrim Alaslar of Turkey, rated 2143 (Private Pähtz won)

In her third game Elisabeth drew against Mateusz Sypien of Poland, so that after three rounds there were fourteen players at the top of the cross table with 2½/3 points.

• Click to download all available games in zipped PGN
• Tournament web site run by the Turkish Chess Federation

Private First Class Elisabeth Pähtz

Let's be honest – were you thinking that this wisp of a girl was not a real soldier? That this slender young thing with the IM title in chess and a Junior World Championship title to her name, had never seen the inside of an army barrack, had never held a gun in her hand? Then you are mistaken, and we have photographic evidence to prove it.

During basic training, where she did the full G.I. Jane thing

Can you spot the 2457 chess player? No? Well that is precisely the point

Ready to defend her country and all of Europe: IM Elisabeth Pähtz, right

Believe us, she knows how to use it! So, people, you don't want to mess with this girl. If she offers a draw, take it. And under no circumstances should you grin inanely if you manage to win.

Elisabeth Pähtz is 22 and was trained from early childhood by her father, Grandmaster Thomas Pähtz (the name, often written "Paehtz", is pronounced "pay-ts", to rhyme with "gates"). At the age of nine she won her first German championship in the under-11 age group. In 1999 she became Germany's women's chess champion, in 2002 the youth world champion of the under-18 age group and in 2004 junior world champion of the age group 20-and-below.

Elisabeth at nine, playing in the under 11 national championship

Playing against one Garry Kasparov at a trade fair in 1999

• Elisabeth Pähtz official web site (in German)