In Russia-Switzerland, Alexander Morozevich sent shock waves through the hall when dispatching of chess legend Viktor Korchnoi in only 13 moves.  However, the tournament's number one seed managed to cede another point and have fallen 1½-points behind front-leader Ukraine who blanked Spain "B" 4-0. Vassily Ivanchuk was in rare form as he surgically dissected Javier Moreno Carnero. The Ukraine's Ruslan Ponomariov took a rest day.

Most of the stronger teams won, but Hungary was on the wrong end of  3-1 thrashing from Macedonia. India saw Viswanathan Anand play for the first time in many years and aptly lead his team to a 3½-½ rout of Alejandro Ramirez's Costa Rica. The USA stumbled to a 2-2 draw with Lithuania with all four boards drawn. Canada continues to impress with a nice 3½-½ win over Albania. Pascal Charbonneau scored an instructive win employing the hedgehog against the Maroczy Bind against veteran GM Erald Dervishi. Other noted action… the young Azerbaijanis beat Chile 3-1; a resurgent Sweden edged Iran 2½-1½ ; Armenia powered over Uzbekistan (without Kasimdzhanov) 3-1.

In other action, Barbados' loss to Kyrgystan was comforted by an impressive win by board #1 Kevin Denny and Jamaica's Shane Matthews also registered the first win for the island nation besting Roger Nokes of New Zealand. Tunisia blanked Suriname and holds the top score for African nations at this point with 4½ teams points. Angola scored a 3½-½ victory while South Africa beat Japan by the same score.  Kenya upset Thailand 2½-1½ despite being outrated on all boards. Perhaps it is appropos that two of the most beautiful islands in the world drew their match… Bermuda and Mauritius drawing their match 2-2.

Report by Dr. Daaim Shabazz, The Chess Drum