Associated Press
November 8

BLED, Slovenia - Russia and Hungary assured themselves of the gold and silver medals by agreeing to quick draws in all of their games in the 13th round of the Chess Olympiad here Friday.

The race in the women's competition grew even tighter as Georgia fell again and China and Russia both drew their matches. China now has a half point lead on Georgia and Russia is going into the last round.

None of Russia's games against Israel or of Hungary's games against Armenia lasted more than 17 moves. This leaves Russia two points ahead of Hungary and Hungary a point and a half ahead of third place Georgia.

The Hungarians and Armenians shook hands after about twenty minutes. Seeing this, the Russians offered draws on their games, which the Israelis accepted after brief consultation.

Israel and Armenia presumably did this to maximize their chances of getting the bronze.

But they didn't count on Georgia, who jumped out of the pack with a 3.5-0.5 whipping of Canada, or on China, who defeated Croatia 3-1. China is a half point behind Georgia and a half point ahead of Armenia.

The United States continued its poor showing, losing to Uzbekistan 3-1.

Top standings in the men's section after 13 rounds (56 games):

Russia 36.5; Hungary 34.5; Georgia 33; China 32.5; Armenia 32; Israel 31.5; England, Netherlands, Poland, Yugoslavia 31; France, Germany, Spain 30.5; Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Macedonia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan 30; Canada, Czech Republic, Cuba, India, Italy, Kazakhstan, Lithuania 29.5; Ireland, Philippines, Romania 29; Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Scotland 28.5; Portugal, Slovenia-A, United States 28.

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