Only one country at the Olympiad is keeping on going without losses in both tournaments. The country that always stays a favorite and, as a rule, misses something for the overall success... Russian men yet play very stable. Nobody loses and Grischuk and Jakovenko win. Today Dima sat at the bench, so Sasha played the role of the leader.

Only in matches of peer competitors it is possible to understand who is well prepared to a tournament. And here they started. It turned out that not all the squads can take a punch and change the course of events in the matches. Chinese that seemed to be so tight conducted the match with Russia surprisingly weakly. Apparently they could not cope with the psychological stress. In fact, the result of the central match of the round was decided in the following game.

Finally the matches between the favorites began, and the heat of the struggle has soared. The suspense and unusual twists entered the team competition. In the men's section a special interest was in the confrontation of Ukraine and Israel. At some moment it seemed that the reigning Olympic champions would lose with a big score, but the Gods had mercy upon them.

The main stars of the favorite teams arrived in the playing hall and played their first games at the Olympiad. World women champion Hou Yifan became an exception, her friends in Chinese team bested the opponents without her.
The results of the starts differed. Sometimes there were mistakes.

En la primera rueda los equipos más fuertes jugaron con oponentes que eran objetivamente de una clase inferior, así que no había inicialmente alguna intriga deportiva. Otros aspectos fueron interesantes. Jugadores no tan famosos del campo del ajedrez jugaron con las estrellas del mundo por primera vez y tal vez por última vez en sus vidas –para ellos fue un gran evento-. Esto es lo que engrandece a la olimpíada –les permite a simples mortales convertirse en oponentes de famosos jugadores, aunque puede ser sólo por un tiempo corto.