2024 FIDE Chess Olympiad: 7 Speaking Factors

The forty fifth FIDE Chess Olympiad has been opened in Budapest, with the video games beginning Wednesday. As virtually 2,000 chess gamers, from world number-one Magnus Carlsen to over 200 unrated members, converge on the Hungarian capital, can India, high seed within the Ladies’s part and 2nd to the usA. within the Open, make this their 12 months? That’s simply one of many questions going into the 2024 Olympiad.

Spherical one of many 2024 FIDE Chess Olympiad begins on Wednesday, September 11 at 9 a.m. ET/15:00 CEST/6:30 p.m. IST.

The Chess Olympiad, held as soon as each two years, is the highest-participation high occasion in chess, with 380 nationwide groups of 5 gamers from virtually 200 nations competing in an 11-round event performed over 4 boards.

The final Olympiad in Chennai, India in 2022 was opened by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an enormous stadium. This time the Opening Ceremony was rather more modest, however Hungarian chess royalty was readily available because the Polgar sisters did the honors. Judit introduced the flame…

And on the finish of the stroll…
The Budapest Chess Olympiad is opened!❤🙂#ChessConnectsUs #honor #ChessOlympiad #magnificence #competitors #sportevent #Hungary #FIDEchess https://t.co/0vzjD5HaTY

— Judit Polgar (@GMJuditPolgar) September 10, 2024

…whereas Susan and Sofia accomplished the draw to determine who would begin with Black in spherical one.

The drawing of colors for spherical 1 was made by @SusanPolgar and Sofia Polgar for the Open and the Ladies’s sections respectively. The primary board of top-seeded groups in every part will begin with Black! #ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/rxgEM7lOEM

— Worldwide Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) September 10, 2024

That simply left the group captains to finalize their group orders earlier than the motion commences Wednesday. Let’s check out a number of the speaking factors.

1. Has India’s Time Come?

India completed 71st within the 2024 Paris Olympics, but it surely has each likelihood of successful the Chess Olympiad in Budapest. Because the host nation in 2022, India may area a number of groups, and it did, taking bronze and fourth within the Open, and bronze and eighth within the Ladies’s part.

This 12 months the primary change for the reason that line-ups had been introduced virtually two months in the past is that the Indian girls have overtaken four-time Ladies’s Chess Olympiad winners Georgia on common ranking to change into the highest seeds.

The Indian group has youth on its facet, with GM Vaishali Rameshbabu and IM Divya Deshmukh particularly two rising stars of girls’s chess, however will face a stiff problem from the skilled Georgian group. There is a larger ranking hole to Poland, whereas six-time champion China, as we’ll get to later, is lacking its high gamers, however nonetheless ranks fourth.

Within the Open part India begins as second seed behind the usA., who’ve GMs Levon Aronian and Leinier Dominguez changing GMs Hikaru Nakamura and Sam Shankland from the group that gained gold in 2016. 

India combines the expertise of GMs Vidit Gujrathi and Pentala Harikrishna with the superior younger skills of GMs Gukesh Dommaraju, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, and world number-four Arjun Erigaisi, who they’ve determined to play on board three!

China is again after skipping the 2022 Olympiad, with the identical formidable spine of the group that gained gold in 2018, in addition to blast-from-the-past GM Wang Yue, the present Chinese language Champion.

Do not, in fact, write off the defending champions from Uzbekistan, with GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov main the identical group that triumphed in Chennai. The younger stars have solely received two years stronger since.     

2. Will Ding Or Gukesh Make A Assertion Earlier than Their Match?

It is simply 2.5 months till the 2024 FIDE Chess World Championship begins in Singapore, and all eyes will once more be on World Champion Ding and his challenger Gukesh. Will Ding shake off the malaise that is plagued him since successful the title and enhance his confidence earlier than the match? Or will Gukesh once more recommend the title is his for the taking? He is received a excessive bar to reside as much as—in 2022 he began the Olympiad with 8/8 and went on to take particular person gold on board one!

Chess is hard, nevertheless, and that implausible end result included a heartbreaking loss in maybe crucial recreation of the entire occasion.

The loss was so devastating for Gukesh he put his head in his hand and did not resign… Abdusattorov ultimately identified his opponent’s time had run out! https://t.co/rpJBRjzfs8 #ChessOlympiad #c24live pic.twitter.com/ClxdcC8qcG

— chess24 (@chess24com) August 8, 2022

As we have seen since, Gukesh did not let it have an effect on him. 

3. Can Carlsen Tick Particular person Olympiad Gold Off His To-Do Listing?

Whereas Ding and Gukesh will seemingly be enjoying for group gold, it will take an outstanding feat for Carlsen to raise sixth-seeded Norway onto the rostrum, however it’s one other likelihood to cross off a bucket-list merchandise. In 2023 he gained the World Cup for the primary time and picked up his first particular person gold in a serious group occasion on the European Staff Chess Championship. Can he take Olympiad gold for the primary time?

The newly-crowned Velocity Chess Champion might want to decelerate a bit in his first classical-only event in virtually 10 months. 

I present some velocity

— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) September 8, 2024

     

4. Which Darkish Horses Will Emerge From The Pack?

The successful Uzbek group was solely seeded 14th in 2022, and the Olympiad, with simply 4 boards in play in every match, could be vastly unpredictable. Within the Open part, for example, you would simply make a case for any of a dozen extra groups to problem for gold, together with the likes of the Netherlands (GMs Anish Giri and Jorden van Foreest), Germany (GM Vincent Keymer), England (GM Nikita Vitiugov boosting stars reminiscent of GMs David Howell, Michael Adams, and Gawain Jones), hosts Hungary (with GM Richard Rapport again from enjoying for Romania, and GM Peter Leko again from commentating in 2022), Iran (GMs Parham Maghsoodloo and Amin Tabatabaei), and Poland (GMs Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Radoslaw Wojtaszek).

Do not rule out perennial Olympiad over-achiever Armenia (champion in 2006, 2008, and 2012, and runner-up in 2022), whereas Fifteenth-seeded Ukraine might have a median ranking of 2650, however has 4 gamers whose peak was properly above 2700, together with legendary GMs Vasyl Ivanchuk and Ruslan Ponomariov. They don’t seem to be joined by their present number-one, GM Igor Kovalenko, who’s combating in Ukraine.

Igor Kovalenko was initially listed as enjoying for Ukraine within the #ChessOlympiad that begins in Budapest tomorrow, however as a substitute the Ukrainian no. 1 is enjoying #TitledTuesday from someplace a lot much less protected https://t.co/3Cd1Nroth3

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 10, 2024

5. Firouzja, Nakamura & Co — Who’s Lacking In Budapest?

The vast majority of high gamers who had been in a position to are enjoying within the Open part (GM Hans Niemann‘s current rise got here too late for choice for the U.S. group), although there are exceptions. World number-two GM Hikaru Nakamura has chosen to not play, as, for a second Olympiad in a row, has GM Alireza Firouzja, who along with GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave may have made the nonetheless robust French group one of many sizzling favorites. 

En route pour Budapest, group France! pic.twitter.com/44tJaoJfmm

— Sebastien Mazé (@mazetovic) September 10, 2024

It is the Ladies’s part, nevertheless, the place the absences hit hardest. Defending champion Ukraine is lacking their high gamers, sisters Anna and Mariya Muzychuk, whereas China, additionally for causes that have not been publicly said, has left the top-four gamers on the Ladies’s ranking record on the bench. Add within the absence of GM Koneru Humpy and the Russian gamers, and simply Georgia’s GM Nana Dzagnidze from the present Ladies’s top-10 can be in motion in Budapest.

6. Lodges, Visas, Politics: Will Something Overshadow The Chess?

The logistics of the Chess Olympiad are at all times a problem, with round 2,500 folks, when group captains and arbiters are added in, needing to journey to and reside within the host metropolis. A number of groups reported issues with motels, together with groups being break up up in the event that they requested single rooms. Complaints had been raised about extreme prices, with some federations resorting to reserving personal lodging. Lots of these issues appear to have been resolved…

Thrilled to see the boys.🖤

Comfortable to not need to be sharing the rooms with them although. pic.twitter.com/gj98LfJhBL

— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) September 1, 2024

…however a extra critical concern has been attending to Budapest within the first place. Visa and journey points are the seemingly suspects for 20 groups within the Open and Ladies’s sections being listed as “not paired” for spherical one. For the Open the groups are: Zambia, Uganda, Nigeria, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Nepal, Palestine, Libya, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Senegal, Somalia, Gambia, Mali, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Niger, Central African Republic, and the Refugees group. 

Groups can arrive late and nonetheless play many of the rounds, but it surely stays to be seen what the ultimate variety of members can be.

The opposite concern which will weigh on the second week of the occasion is the assembly of the Worldwide Chess Federation (FIDE) Common Meeting. This is not a presidential election 12 months, however the Kyrgystan Chess Federation has put ahead a movement to revive the total standing of the Russian and Belarussian Chess Federations, who’re at present unable to host main FIDE occasions or play within the Olympiad (although Russian GM Vladimir Kramnik captains Uzbekistan, whereas GM Alexander Grischuk captains Iran).

The brand new President of the Ukrainian Chess Federation, Alexander Kamyshin, defined in a thread on X what he plans to do to try to cease the movement being accredited.

7. The Olympiad Is Going To Be Large 

Whereas the Opening Ceremony was modest, the occasion itself is on a grand scale, with the video games to be performed in an enormous area within the BOK Sports activities and Convention Heart.

Gamers from all around the globe can be participating, in addition to gamers of all ages. As an illustration, 80-year-old WIM Rani Hamid can be representing Bangladesh at her twentieth Olympiad, whereas on the different finish of the dimensions we’ve got two nine-year-olds, England’s WFM Bodhana Sivanandan…

…and the youngest participant within the occasion, Lebanon’s Skye Attieh.    

After a sleepless night time, Skye made it to Budapest for the #chess Olympiad. pic.twitter.com/tHtfxxEwUC

— wael attieh (@AttiehWael) September 10, 2024

All of it kicks off Wednesday, with the group pairings already launched. High seed U.S.A. will tackle Panama in spherical one, whereas India faces Morocco.

Olympiad Spherical 1 Staff Pairings: Open 

Within the Ladies’s part high seed India takes on Jamaica, whereas Georgia faces the United Arab Emirates.

Olympiad Spherical 1 Staff Pairings: Ladies

Will we get some early surprises, or will the favorites cruise on the opening day? We’ll quickly discover out!

The forty fifth FIDE Chess Olympiad is a large group occasion for nationwide federations that takes place each two years. In 2024 it is being held in Budapest, Hungary, with 11 rounds that run September 11-22. In Open and Ladies’s sections groups of 5 gamers compete in a Swiss Open, with every match performed over 4 boards. There are two match factors for a win and one for a draw, with board factors solely taken under consideration if groups are tied. Gamers have 90 minutes per recreation, plus half-hour from transfer 40, with a 30-second increment per transfer.

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