Grandelius-Shirov
Grandelius played his favorite move 6.d3 against the Ruy Lopez. His position looked promising but Shirov defended well and in the end the game fizzled out into a drawish rook ending.
Van Foreest-Niemann
In a sharp Italian variation, Van Foreest sacrificed a pawn, which seemed to give a promising initiative. The critical position of the game was when Van Foreest chose to win back the pawn with 22.Nd2 instead of playing the sharper 22.Nd4.
Van Foreest-Niemann. Position after 21…Rxa7
In the game continuation, it was rather Niemann who was a little better, but the draw was still logical.
Adams-Salem
As white in Caro-Kann, Adams managed to prevent black castling. Salem’s solution to sacrifice a pawn to get the king to safety did not work, the black king was exposed anyway. With accurate play, Adams could decide with an attack against black king.
Navara-Erigaisi
Via a different move order, the players entered a calm variant of the queen’s gambit accepted where the queens were exchanged early. The game became really interesting when they reached a pawn ending where the king of Navara was slightly more active than Erigaisis. Despite ingenious maneuvering Navara could not break down the black defense and the game ended in a draw.