I didn’t play today against Albania and the most important thing is that we won! It wasn’t easy, but the match was under control all the time. We shouldn’t have lost on board 2, in fact we were winning on both boards 1 (Nedev) and 2 (Pancevski) at some point and we only managed to get half a point on those two! Luckily, Mitkov on 3 squeezed out a win and Bogdanovski won a nice game on 4.

Tomorrow we’re paired with Croatia and a tough match awaits us.

On the top boards, Russia was lucky not to lose against China (Kramnik still had his box of hazelnuts), while Carlsen won a great game in a Closed Sicilian against Wojtaszek, Anand’s second, employing Spassky’s idea in similar positions to put the knight on h3.

From Spassky to Carlsen

As I had more time today, I took a walk in the less central parts of Tromso and I must say I was impressed. It looks like a sleepy fairy-tale town! Take a look: