PHYSICAL REVIEW D, cilt.63, sa.11, 2001 (SCI-Expanded)
We draw an analogy between the deconfining transition in the (2+1)-dimensional Georgi-Glashow model and the chiral phase transition in (3+1)-dimensional QCD. Based on the detailed analysis of the former we suggest that the chiral symmetry restoration in QCD at high temperature is driven by the thermal ensemble of baryons and antibaryons. The chiral symmetry is restored when roughly half of the volume is occupied by the baryons. Surprisingly enough, even though baryons are rather heavy, a crude estimate for the critical temperature gives T-c=180 MeV. In this scenario the binding of the instantons is not the cause but rather a consequence of the chiral symmetry restoration.