Shirov quickly gained the upper hand, but Georgiev managed to keep his head above water throughout the first session. After that, however, it seemed as though he was too exhausted to think clearly. On move 42 he committed a grave strategic error, but Shirov was kind enough to return the favour three moves later, when he gave Georgiev the chance to force a draw.

Missing this golden opportunity, the Bulgarian quickly found himself pinned to the floor. Or strapped face-down to the mattress, as Andrew Martin would put it.

Kasparov was unable to get more than a slight edge out of the opening against his younger compatriot, but he was able to maintain it through the middlegame and enter a favourable endgame. Bareev probably should have been able to hold, but he wasn’t quite up to it on this particular occasion. A couple of errors, and it was all over.

Sokolov was able to hold his own in the early stages of his favourite Open Spanish, but left to his own devices in the middlegame, the Bosnian quickly strayed. 18…bxc3 turned out to be a big mistake, and after Adams’ powerful exchange sacrifice eight moves later, Black’s position was basically hopeless.

Movsesian finally wins a game! Morozevich is used to getting away with just about anything, relying on his powers of calculation to get him out of trouble, but on this occasion his optimism was severely punished. Having achieved a very pleasant position as black in the French, he suddenly decided to pitch an exchange for no apparent reason.

There’s really not a lot say about this game. Gurevich tried to win by force in the opening, and was duly punished. This sort of thing probably works on the Belgian weekend circuit, but against a top ten player, you’re gonna get spanked every time!

Short was obviously hoping to pick up a full point against the French tailender, but he never even came close. White usually has to take some risks if he wants to be better against the English Opening, but Bacrot was able to grab a lot of space and still remain solid. In the end Short managed to draw, but he was struggling all the way.