Can anyone stop Russia now?
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Only two more rounds to go! Friday will see round 13 and Sunday morning will see the final round.

All still to play for in the final two rounds? It did looke like it would come to a tight finish a few rounds ago, but now the the gold contenders seem to have been narrowed down to two: Russia and Germany.

The mighty Russian team is playing without Kasparov, Kramnik, Karpov and Bareev, but they are now on a roll. Today saw the demise of the Armenian team, which had been very solid until now. But the match score was desolate: 3˝ for Russia and a mere ˝ for the Armenians.

Fide World Champ Alexander Khalifman is rediscovering the form that took him to the title a year ago. Today Khalifman coolly collected Lputian's white pawns with his queen and then exchanged queens in a two plus pawns position. Alexander Morozevich is fighting hard to become the highest performing player in the tournament. Today he played a fine rook sacrifice attack against Minasian, but only got an even rook ending for it. The Armenian did not try to repeat moves for a draw, but instead plunged into a winning attempt which failed. Another point for Russia. Grischuk took the third win home.

Germany are still hanging in after beating the poorly performing American team. Jussupov and Hübner took the points for the Europeans.

The Ukraine vs the Netherlands match was a draw on all four boards, and Hungary defeated Bulgaria. Judit Polgar is another contender for the highest performance rating competition (unofficial). Today the Hungarian lady was the only breadwinner in the team as she dissembled her hanging pawns in the right moment against Delchev. The two black knights on d4 and e4 were a sight to behold. But she had to work for it for 76 moves. The awaited encounter on top board between Topalov and Leko was drawn after an unusual ending: queen for Leko, rook, bishop and pawn for Topalov.

Israel and England still have a chance for a medal after 3-1 results today, but the Olympiad victory will definitely be decided between the two leaders.

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