It all seemed so cut and dried yesterday, but that all changed today with the announcement that Chinese Taipei had been disqualified. This opened up a major battle between Israel and Norway for the fourth qualifying spot. Israel scored a convincing victory over Hong Kong to make the top four.

The Italians, with their choice of their semifinal opponent, opted for Israel. They will take a hefty carryover into their 64-board match today. In their head-to-head match, Italy won by 27. Under the carryover formula, half of this - 13.5 IMPs - is carried over because Italy finished higher than Israel.

The other match will see USA 2 playing against Denmark. They tied for second place, so the tie-breaking procedures went into effect. The first is quotient - total IMPs won divided by total IMPs lost - and that method worked. USA 2 won 752 IMPs and lost 559 for a quotient of 1.344. Denmark won 780 and lost 601 for a quotient of 1.297.

That means the American team officially finished second - and that made a difference in the carryover. In their match against each other, Denmark was the winner by 16 IMPs. Since they finished below the Americans in the final standings, only one-third counts as carryover. So Denmark will begin the day today 5.33 IMPs ahead of USA 2.