Russia ran roughshod over their second opponent… this time it was a strong Latvian team with four Grandmasters. In Russia-Latvia, Alexander Grischuk  sacrificed a knight to get his steamrolling pawns going. Amazingly, Daniel Fridman returned the knight and then sacrificed the other in an attempt to  create passed pawns on opposite sides of the board. The plan was faulty and Grischuk's remaining knight would pin down one pawn while his king watched the other. Sergey Rublevsky beautifully checkmated Viesturs Meijers out of a French Tarrasch.

Meanwhile, second-ranked India blanked Cyrus 4-0, but may have a hard time picking up ground on the top teams. Netherlands fielded a powerful team and took Bangladesh 3-1 while Bulgaria was held by Indonesia. Much has been said by Topalov's refusal to play for Bulgaria which would have an excellent chance of a medal if he were on the top table. In this round, there are already very strong teams meeting.

A couple of upsets were seen as #50 Australia shocked #15 Romania with  veteran Ian Rogers scoring a big win over Andrei Istratescu. All the other Nordic teams (Finland, Denmark and Iceland) played on successive boards won their matches, but Egypt upset Sweden 2½-1½ when both Tiger Hillarp-Person and Pontus Carlsson slipped in complicated positions. One thing is for sure… the playing field is leveling and the big guns from each of the top teams are playing their strongest teams in earlier rounds to avoid dropping crucial points.

African-Caribbean scores

Algeria 2-2 El Salvador; Angola 3½-½  Netherlands Antilles; Uruguay 3-1 Aruba; Barbados 3½-½ Hong Kong; Brunei Darussalam 3-1 Bermuda; Botswana 3½-½  Haiti; British Virgin Islands ½-3½ Puerto Rico; Cuba 2-2 Czech Republic; Dominican Republic 3½-½ Sudan; Egypt 3½-½ Sweden; New Zealand 4-0 Ethiopia; Haiti; ½-3½ Botswana; Jamaica 4-0 South Korea;  Yemen 4-0 Kenya; Thailand 3½-½ Libya; Kazakhstan 3½-½ Malawi; Philippines 4-0 Mauritius; USA 3½-½ Morocco; Mozambique 3½-½ Mauritius; Kyrgystan  4-0 Namibia; Mexico 4-0 Netherlands Antilles; Armenia 3½-½ Nigeria; Puerto Rico 3½-½ British Virgin Islands; Suriname 4-0 Rwanda; Panama 3-1 Seychelles; South Africa 3½-½ Japan; Trinidad & Tobago 2-2 Iraq;  Mongolia 3½-½ Tunisia;  Uganda 3½-½ Chinese Taipei; Palestine 3-1 U.S. Virgin Islands

Reporting from Turin, Italy -  Dr. Daaim Shabazz, The Chess Drum

Posted by The Chess Drum: 23 May 2006