Malta has registered its third win in a row at the Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Maniysk, Russia beating Surinam by 3½ - ½ in the 10th round.

Colin Pace, Joseph Gauci and Duncan Vella all won the full point while Sorensen drew his game on board 1.

In rounds eight and nine the local side defeated Burundi and Aruba respectively with the convincing scores of 4-0 and 2½ - 1½.

In the last round Malta plays Panama and another win will place the national squad around twenty place better than their expected score at the start of the competition. 148 teams are taking part in the open competition.

At the top of the table Ukraine are the sole leaders with 18 points followed by Russia1 with 17 points and Israel with 16. Ukraine plays Israel in the last round while Russia1 are paired to Spain.

In the women Olympiad the leaders are the Russians followed by China and the Ukraine.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinoz was re-elected as President of FIDE during the Olympaid Congress with 95:55 votes.

His rival was Anatoly Karpov an ex-World chess champion.

Geoffrey Borg, President of the Malta Chess Federation was the election campaign director for Ilyumzhinov and this great victory for Kirsan's ticket will strengthen even further the ties Borg has with FIDE.

Borg is currently CEO of GlobalChess, a commercial marketing branch of the International chess Federation (FIDE).