The team captained by Gabriel Chagas of Brazil staged a powerful comeback to score a1-IMP victory in the Round of 64 in the Vivendi Rosenblum Teams. Carlo Mosca of Italy just barely held on against Steve Robinson of the United States - again it was a 1-IMP triumph. Bernasconi of Italy also had a tough battle, defeating the Robin Klar team by just 2 IMPs.

The Chagas comeback was spectacular against the Yuniarto Hadimartono squad. The Indonesian team raced to a 30-point lead in the first quarter and increased it to 37 in the second. Chagas closed to within 13 in the third quarter, then outscored their foes, 29-15, over the final 14 boards for a 95-94 victory.

The Klar team made a mighty effort after falling behind by 25 IMPs in the first quarter. They tied in the second canto, then gained eight in the third and 15 in the fourth - but that wasn't quite good enough. The United States still has six representatives, and Italy is next with five. France and Sweden have four, while Great Britain and the Netherlands have three each. Poland still has two teams. Nations with one team remaining are Brazil, Germany, Israel, Denmark and South Africa.

5 American teams still in McConnell

Five American teams survived the Round of 32 in the Louis Vuitton McConnell Cup Women's Teams.

Still in contention are Kathie Wei-Sender, npc Alan Truscott, Karen Allison, npc John Solodar and Nadine Wood. Wood had the closest battle, defeating Zur Albu Of Israel, 88-80. In the highlight battle of the day, Sabine Auken of Germany defeated Jo Morse of the United States, 168-109. Morse defeated Auken for the Venice Cup in 1993.

France still has three representatives - Claude Bouquit, Kitabgi and Véronique Bessis. Teams captained by Speelman and Franken are still in the battle for the Netherlands. China (Liu), Italy (Vandoni), Great Britain (Liz McGowan), Austria (Marie Erhart), and Czech Republic (Bahnik) also made the Round of 16.

T. Przyjemski and M. Zaremba of Poland had a strong 62.59% game in the final session of the Junior Pairs to take the gold medal. They averaged 58.26% over the four sessions. P. Marino and D. Pagani of Italy had a whopping game in the last session - 69.66% -- to come from nowhere and take the silver medal.

Their average for all sessions was a highly creditable 57.93%. Third place went to a Dutch pair - M. Lagas and M. Schollaardt. Europeans took the first seven places. The highest non-European finishers were A. Greenberg and C. Lubesnik of the United States, who placed eighth.