Round #2 saw some fighting chess, as is to be expected as the tournament progressed. Among the top ten teams,  several limped to victory while others continued to pile up points.  Cuba took a share of the lead with a trashing of Bangladesh  while Bulgaria disposed of Albania… both lead the field with 7½ points. With GM Garry Kasparov on board #1, Russia easily dismissed of Belarus, 3½-½ and now is second with 7 points. Hungary also kept pace with a 3-1 win over a strong Vietnamese team.

Many top teams were taking casualties. Ukraine edged Uzbekistan in a close match; fourth-ranked Israel drew with Switzerland with all games being decisive (Korchnoi beat Smirin on board#1);  #USA squeezed past the Phillipines as GM Joel Benjamin scored a decisive victory on board #3 against the tournament player with the longest name, GM Buenaventura Villamayor. Perhaps China has been the biggest disappointment thus far as the #7-seed team drew with #22 Spain giving them only 4½ match points. FM Ni Hua lost for the second time in as many games.

Canada scored an impressive win against host nation Slovenia-A winning both bottom boards. The youth movement carried the day for the Canadians as IM Pascal Charbonneau and IM Mark Bluvshtein  snared points on boards 3 &4. One of the biggest upsets in round #2 came at the bottom tier with Ethiopia besting Iraq, 2½-1½. Ethiopia fielded only one FIDE-rated player (2000 silver medalist Dawit Wondimu) and scored victories on boards 1 & 3 to seal the victory. Zambia continued to ascend to the higher boards by  holding a powerful Brazilian team to a 2-2 draw. This is a huge accomplismhment for Zambia who was outrated on all boards by an average of 250 ELO points! All boards were drawn as IM Amon Simutowe set the pace by drawing GM Giovanni Vescovi while NM Stanley Chumfwa held GM Rafael Leitao after fighting for 70 moves.