A highly-anticipated Armenia--Russia match ended in a tough 2-2 draw. This was a bit of a surprise considering the powerful field the Russian sent to man the boards.  The lineup of Garry Kasparov (2838), Alexander Grischuk (2702), Alexander Khalifman (2690) and Alexander Morozevich (2707) was not enough to dispatch of the Armenians who were lead on board #1 by GM Vladimir Akopian.  There was only one "Alexander the Great" in this match and that turned out to be Morozevich who is attempting to rebound from poor play in World Cup 2002 and a 1st round draw to a 14-year old IM from Costa Rica.

Morozevich hit IM Gabriel Sargissian with a vicious onslaught initiated by 26.Rxe5! and followed with a vicious attack on the king. Another piece was sacked with 28.Nxh5! and Black was soon slaughtered. Armenia's GM Smbat Lputian won a nice textbook ending (diagram on right) against Grischuk and Akopian prevented Kasparov's revenge for last month's defeat in the Russia vs. Rest of World match by drawing.

Poland relinquished the tournament lead after being steamrolled by Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Bosnians now lead the tournament with 15½ points. The Ukraine's quest to compete for the lead was derailed after the Czech Republic held. Hungary stayed in striking distance of the lead after GM Judit Polgar swindled Moldova's IM Dmitry Svetushkin.

In Grischuk - Lputian, Black played 38…fxg4 and won the opposition after  39.Kf4 Kf7!

In other action, China demolished the Azerbaijan team with GM Teimour Radjabov making a futile attempt to salvage the match playing two pawns down against GM Ye Jiangchuan. The Americans are playing themselves out of medal contention rapidly and fell again to the Swedes 2½-1½. India is also fading fast… losing 3-1 to Lithuania. Canada scored an impressive 3-1 win as Charbonneau's win carried the day.

African nations had mixed results today as all of the Saharan African teams (Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya) lost badly. Both Angola and Uganda held Africa's honor winning by convincing 4-0 scores. Uganda blitzed friendly neighbor Kenya and was lead by another powerful game by Grace Nsubuga. IM Robert Gwaze of Zimbabwe continues is torrid pace with his win over IM David Gluckman of South Africa in a battle of regional neighbors. His 5-0 score has been quite impressive as he has played with tremendous energy and deadly precision. Botswana continued to  impress and held Mongolia to a  2-2 deadlock…   Pitlagano Tebogo ended his game with a nice côup de graçe. Rwanda finally found their way to Bled after fighting visa problems and beat the US Virgin Islands in their debut match.

Unfortunately, Caribbean nations had a bad day at the office. Both Jamaica and Barbados were whitewashed while Trinidad's sole consolation was an impressive game by John Raphael. Tomorrow is a new day.