The 2nd day of the Chess Olympiad seemed more hectic than day 1. This was due to the fact that it was the first weekend round, and the venue was swarming with spectators. Outside the entrance to the main playing hall, there were hundreds of autograph hunters, waiting for players to emerge after their games had finished. Inside the hall the number of spectators was also larger, although this didn't cause any significant issues for the players.
Day 2 saw a couple of big guns emerge. Magnus Carlsen played his first game, winning against Georg Meier from Uruguay. After his draw yesterday Aronian was rested for Caruana, but is a semi upset, Paraguay scored 1.5 against the top seeded US team. The biggest upset of the round was Zambia beating Denmark 2.5-1.5.
Australia continued its winning ways in both the Open and Women's events. The Open team scored 3.5 against Morocco, and the Women's team scored 3 against New Zealand. As a result Australia played Poland in the Open and Cuba in the Women's.
PNG went down 0-4 to Qatar, but Nauru scored a credible 1.5 against the higher rated Honduras. With 2 rounds out of the way, the 'real' tournament is starting for a lot of the lower ranked teams, although PNG still have a tough opponent in the shape of Mozambique.
WCO (2), 2022.07.30
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