Today’s comparatively even matchups promised a lot of close battles and the day certainly didn’t disappoint in terms of struggle. All matches were hard fought and there were some big surprises both in open and women sections but generally speaking the favourites mostly managed to overcome the underdogs.

 

All eyes of the chess community were set on the possibility of seeing Vladimir Kramnik in action today but Globus rested again their number one as well as Alexander Grischuk. Not like they needed them to win their matches so far but since Kramnik needs to raise his rating desperately he could have used today’s opportunity. Anyway perhaps this unpredictability of the moment they will start playing can be used to good effect for both the team and the players.
 

In the match of the top seeds versus Romanian team Csm Baia Mare, Globus again completely overpowered their opponents. They managed to strike in the last two boards where rating differences were greater than others and didn’t have any particular problems on top boards. The game of the round came from Mamedyarov-Nisipeanu matchup on the first board. The Azeri superstar played a fine attacking game: