Tournament Update: Biel, China, Britain, and USA vs. the ROW?!

1. Biel. Etienne Bacrot is leading Biel with a fine score of 4/5, with wins against Rafael Vaganian (round 2), Alexander Morozevich (round 4), and Noel Studer (round 5). He hasn't played his fellow 2700s Pentala Harikrishna or David Navara yet, but it's still a very good performance thus far. Surprisingly, Hou Yifan is in clear second, half a point behind. She beat Morozevich in round 1 and Navara in round 5. There are still four rounds remaining, but it would be a real feather in her cap if she could somehow win this tournament.

2. The Chinese Team Championship. Like the well-known German Bundesliga, the event stretches on for months, so it's easy to miss it. But there was action this weekend, and with many of the top Chinese players participating, along with foreign stars like Alexander Grischuk, Le Quang Liem, Arkadij Naiditsch, Vladimir Malakhov (etc.) it's worth keeping an eye out for the event.

3. The British Championships. Only one player currently rated over 2700 is playing - David Howell - but plenty of GMs are participating in this 9-round Swiss. (And even the non-GMs are tough - it took Howell 108 moves to defeat Graham Moore, rated 2155, in round 1!)

4. Match of the Millennials. Finally, a good news/bad news story. The good news: U.S. junior chess is doing so well that we were able to put on a U.S. vs. the Rest of the World match, and do so with a straight face. The bad news: we got whupped. In fact, the match was close after two days, with the ROW team only two points ahead. But day three was a CATASTROPHE, as the U.S. lost 10.5-1.5. That almost made the last day - today - superfluous, with the ROW team needing only one point to win the match. Today's action is still going, but that has point has already been acquired.