 Veselin Topalov and Krasimir Rusev won their games with the White pieces but Momchil Nikolov and Martin Petrov lost with the Black pieces.On the lower boards, the team from South Sudan impressed in their Olympiad debut against the Faeroe Islands, scoring an upset win on board 3 and a near-upset on board 1 despite a minimal budget, no coach, and little apparent knowledge of opening theory.There was a larger than usual number of no-shows in the first round, particularly among the African teams.