Three teams share the lead at 10.5 points after third round of the XXXVIIth Chess Olympiad in Turin. Top seeds Russia are in front by virtue of Buchholz tie-break ahead of two Asian sides: China - blazing up with revanchism after memorable Beer Sheva tragedy - and surprise Uzbekistan. The Uzbeks, seeded 30th, led by former FIDE World Champion Kasimdzhanov, enjoy lucky drawing as today they swept out Australia by 3.5-0.5 which was relatively very easy run given they could well be paired with, say, Holland or Serbia. Ukraine, only missing Ponomariov from 2004 squad, are just a fraction behind the leaders. Second seeds India, suffering shocking 3-1 debacle on day one, recovered a bit with a perfect 8/8 scored subsequently but they are still lying down in 17th. France are doing no better as they lie in poor 35th at 8/12. Azerbaijan are perhaps biggest losers so far. A team famous from being by far the youngest in the pool were commonly expected to become one of big wigs in near future. Today, following their disastrous performance in the first two rounds (0.5-3.5 vs Portugal!!), they are in miserable 76th with poor prospects for future.

Juicy pairings for tomorrow include China-Russia (!!), Armenia-Norway (possibly Aronian will face Carlsen) and Hungary-India.

In the women's section unstoppable Russia wiped out Poland 3-0 to take second position at 8.5/9. Sensational Lithuania are in the nose scoring incredible 9/9, including 3-0's vs Sweden and Latvia. Tomorrow will be the test day for 13th seeds as they play Russia in the hit clash of the event.

Standings:
Men: Russia, China, Uzbekistan 10.5; Greece, Ukraine, Netherlands 10
Women: Lithuania 9; Russia, China 8.5; Romania, Ukraine 8

The internet coverage of the event and the live transmission are poor and in no way meet the standards of 21st century. There is a game file but a lot of games are missing and truncated, and those available are too bugged to be of use for more in-depth analysis. We are sorry but the everyday game preview will not be launched until the problem is fixed.

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