The player line up this time: Alex on one, Pascal on two, David on three and Jack on fourth.

Igor is sitting out to get some rest. I am sitting out because the cold that has been bothering me these last few days is getting a little worse. I probably shouldn’t have played yesterday. However, I hope to play 9 of the remaining 10 games.

The match up with Bulgaria (Topalov, Kiril Georgiev, Delchev and Krum Georgiev) will provide needed experience for our younger members.

Some details of yesterday’s round. There was a power failure during the 4th hour of play. All of the clocks had to be stopped for about 10 minutes while the organizers rushed to restore power.

I took the time to study the players’ reactions to this episode: the Czech team simply got up and stretched their legs. Others, such as Yasser Seirawan and Arthur Yusupov stayed glued to their seats and tried to study the board position as much as the light would permit.

I recall a story of the famous Fischer-Stein game of '67 when a power failure occurred at a critical point of the game. The arbiter wanted to stop the clock and not allow the players to stay seated: but Fischer refused to do so and so the arbiter kept his clock running during the blackout! Fischer ended up winning one of his most famous victories.

Another incident involved a near fatal collision in the tournament hall between Israeli GM Psakhis and an unnamed player. Psakhis came running from the washroom on his way back to his game: a very tense game. He accidentally collided with the unnamed player who went forward and hit his head against the wall and collapsed. Someone called out the classic 'Is there a doctor in the house?' as a crowd of spectators gathered.

Fortunately the poor fellow recovered after a few moments and got on with the rest of his life! I am not sure what the final results of either Psakhis’ game or the other fellow. And no, Psakhis did not collide with his opponent!

On another matter, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find available spaces at the cybercafes. The large number of chess players, arbiters, and tourists is creating a boom in the area of my hotel.

Today the weather is much like yesterday: cool and occasional sun. No rain yet.

The entire team (both national and women) is getting along very well. Spirits are high and everyone is focused on doing the best they can.

More later.