LEP brought up that there is no betting but, like March Madness, there is the potential for some impressive upsets. But then I started thinking... there's a bracket available on the Fide website... We should start a pool!! This round did see a couple upsets in the first game, young Radjabov avoided his normal Pelikan Sicilian and got trounced in the offbeat Ruy Lopez Schliemann, guess the experiment failed. Ponomariav lost again... which puts a lot of pressure on him. And poor Carlsen couldn't even get his pieces out (with White!) and by the time he did the game was equal and he was held to a draw.

Mamedyarov cruised to a win. Shulman drew Shirov with White, the other Americans won (Kamsky with Black!!). Some interesting games... this tournament is growing on me. I still say that with fewer players and more rounds per match it would be more interesting though.

I am serious about the pool, I think it would be cool to fill out some brackets and see who we put in the final four... even if there is no money involved.