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Photo by Susan Polgar

The cream is rising to the top and the top boards are starting to draw more.  This years Olympiad being held in Dresden, Germany, they have instituted a new rule. No draws before 30 moves.  Even with this new rule some of the games appear to have gone down some quiet lines.

The U.S. did have sweeping success against Hong Kong.  They will need many more of these type results to close the medal gap.

Round 5 on 2008/11/17 at 15:00
Bo.	9	Armenia (ARM)	Rtg	-	20	Netherlands (NED)	Rtg	2½:1½
1.1	GM	Aronian Levon	2757	-	GM	Van Wely Loek	2618	½ – ½
1.2	GM	Akopian Vladimir	2679	-	GM	Smeets Jan	2604	½ – ½
1.3	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	2642	-	GM	Stellwagen Daniel	2605	1 – 0
1.4	GM	Petrosian Tigran L	2629	-	GM	L’Ami Erwin	2610	½ – ½
Bo.	11	Germany 1 (GER1)	Rtg	-	1	Russia (RUS)	Rtg	2 : 2
2.1	GM	Naiditsch Arkadij	2678	-	GM	Kramnik Vladimir	2772	½ – ½
2.2	GM	Khenkin Igor	2647	-	GM	Grischuk Alexander	2719	½ – ½
2.3	GM	Gustafsson Jan	2634	-	GM	Morozevich Alexander	2787	½ – ½
2.4	GM	Fridman Daniel	2630	-	GM	Jakovenko Dmitry	2737	½ – ½
Bo.	5	Hungary (HUN)	Rtg	-	2	Ukraine (UKR)	Rtg	1½:2½
3.1	GM	Leko Peter	2747	-	GM	Ivanchuk Vassily	2786	0 – 1
3.2	GM	Polgar Judit	2711	-	GM	Karjakin Sergey	2730	0 – 1
3.3	GM	Almasi Zoltan	2663	-	GM	Eljanov Pavel	2720	1 – 0
3.4	GM	Balogh Csaba	2616	-	GM	Volokitin Andrei	2659	½ – ½
Bo.	19	Norway (NOR)	Rtg	-	4	Azerbaijan (AZE)	Rtg	1 : 3
4.1	GM	Carlsen Magnus	2786	-	GM	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2731	½ – ½
4.2	GM	Agdestein Simen	2588	-	GM	Gashimov Vugar	2703	0 – 1
4.3	GM	Lie Kjetil A	2526	-	GM	Huseynov Gadir	2650	½ – ½
4.4	IM	Hammer Jon Ludvig	2522	-	GM	Mammadov Rauf	2631	0 – 1

Round Six will see some interesting matchups. The top ten boards are listed below.
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Photo by Susan Polgar

The cream is rising to the top and Russia may still be a force to be reckoned with. There are only two teams undefeated thus far in the 38th Chess Olympiad being held in Dresden, Germany.

Today’s games promise to be exciting.  Germany has two teams competing because they are the host country this year. But it is their top team who is reaking all of the havoc.  Germany 1 faced Scotland round 1, Slovenia round 2, Malaysia round 3, and Spain round 4.

Russia’s road wasn’t any easier, they played Switzerland round 1, Poland round 2, Cuba round 3 and India round 4.

With GM Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany and GM Alexander Morozevich of Russia both having a strong tournament we should expect fireworks.

The rest of the field is not far behind with Armenia, Hungary, Norway, Azerbaijan, England, Ukraine and the Netherlands all with one point of the leaders.  The U.S. team has dropped down to the middle of the pack with 5 points and really needs to shift gears to get back in the medal race.