GM Magnus Carlsen‘s first go to to the forty fifth FIDE Chess Olympiad will not be forgotten in a rush after he turned up late, on a motorbike, considering he’d misplaced by default, however was smuggled in simply in time to go on to win by checkmate. GM Fabiano Caruana moved as much as world number-two as U.S.A. marched on, however 2700-stars GMs Anish Giri and Vincent Keymer each misplaced because the Netherlands and Germany sank to losses towards Italy and Lithuania.
Within the Girls’s forty fifth FIDE Chess Olympiad, a number of groups held favorites to attracts on the highest 10 boards: Romania, Greece, Argentina, and Slovenia respectively held Georgia, Poland, Azerbaijan, and Germany. Uzbekistan narrowly scored the primary upset victory towards Hungary with a 2.5-1.5 rating.
Spherical 4 of the 2024 FIDE Chess Olympiad begins on Saturday, September 14 at 9 a.m. ET/15:00 CEST/6:30 p.m. IST.
Open Part: Storm On And Off The Board As First Favorites Fall
For the primary time the upsets within the Open part have been favorites dropping slightly than simply drawing their matches, because the Netherlands and Germany have been put to the sword.
Central Europe is braced for floods this weekend, and rainfall in Budapest on Friday made attending to the venue a problem for all of the groups.
#ChessOlympiad Day 3.@FIDE_chess ought to supplied an official switch from the resort @RadissonBlu to the taking part in corridor, however smth went improper and the 🇺🇦 participant @EvgeniyaDoluhan attempting to catch a taxi pic.twitter.com/1FPgNg34Cu
— Natalia Zhukova (@Natalichess) September 13, 2024
Essentially the most dramatic entrance, nonetheless, was made by none aside from the world number-one, Carlsen, who in the end made it to his sport, by bike, with simply 4 minutes to spare—after that he would have misplaced by default.
And he gained the sport – simply Magnus Carlsen issues! pic.twitter.com/vcHfYEztFv
— Chess.com (@chesscom) September 13, 2024
He thought he’d turned as much as the venue too late, however the begin of all of the video games had been delayed quarter-hour as a result of climate situations, and WFM Maria Emelianova confirmed him a manner in regardless of his lack of a badge.
World no. 1 @MagnusCarlsen arrived on a motorbike within the rain & thought he’d misplaced his sport by forfeit when he could not discover the doorway to the venue & had no badge — however @photochess managed to smuggle him in simply in time!#ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/CCjvNTGPbP
— chess24 (@chess24com) September 13, 2024
After a clean win towards GM Roberto Garcia Pantoja that resulted in checkmate—and a 3.5-0.5 win for Norway towards Colombia, he may look again on all of it as simply “a enjoyable story.” Carlsen defined he is staying at a unique resort from his teammates and was meant to be picked up by them on the way in which, however once they obtained caught in site visitors he noticed no hope however to make his personal manner there. It turns on the market are some issues he isn’t so good at!
Magnus: “Okay, I’ll strive & soar on a motorbike. The issue is, I had no concept the place to go, so I used to be attempting to bike as quick as I may & navigate on the identical time, however I am not superb at navigating… that is the factor I ought to work on probably the most!”#ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/yiONVwU5fi
— chess24 (@chess24com) September 13, 2024
Whereas Norway scored a very good bounce-back win after being held to a draw the day earlier than, the highest groups powered on, with India dropping its first half level (a draw for GM Vidit Gujrathi) however beating Hungary B 3.5-0.5 with wins for the fearsome trio of GMs Gukesh Dommaraju, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, and Arjun Erigaisi.
Arjun’s win towards GM Peter Prohaszka featured a glowing end, with a queen sac and checkmate!
That noticed India take the only lead on tiebreaks for the primary time, although 16 groups nonetheless have an ideal 6/6 match factors.
U.S.A., as you may see, are only a fraction behind, and in spherical three they actually kicked into gear, with superb wins for GMs Wesley So (vs. GM Arkadij Naiditsch, now representing Bulgaria, after beforehand taking part in for Germany and Azerbaijan) and Levon Aronian.
Caruana’s lengthy grind towards GM Ivan Cheparinov was the icing on the cake, with the decisive breakthrough solely coming with 68…d5!, when each gamers have been taking part in on the 30 seconds added every transfer.
That end result meant that Caruana is now again as much as world number-two, a smidgen above Nakamura.
Uzbekistan and China have been among the many different prime seeds to win simply, even when GM Ding Liren was once more held to a draw, this time by GM Vladimir Fedoseev, however slightly below them we noticed our first large upsets.
Every part going proper for fifth seed the Netherlands when GM Jorden van Foreest obtained a profitable place in round a dozen strikes earlier than duly changing, however on the remaining three boards towards Italy every little thing went off the rails.
The headline end result was Italian GM Lorenzo Lodici‘s win over Giri, which has been analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao beneath.
That wasn’t the one shock, as sixth seed Germany fell, in an much more painful style.
Once more the star participant misplaced, with GM Titas Stremavicius taking down high-flying 19-year-old Keymer. One transfer, 30…c4?, on which the younger German spent virtually all his remaining seven minutes, proved very expensive.
What made the match heartbreaking, nonetheless, was that GM Alexander Donchenko spent hours attempting to transform a profitable place towards GM Valery Kazakouski solely to stumble on the finish in a difficult endgame and lose the sport and match.
There have been extra upsets additional down the sector. thirty sixth seed Montenegro defeated 14th seed France when GM Nikita Petrov gained the one decisive sport by checkmating GM Marc’Andria Maurizzi.
It was the identical story for fortieth seed Sweden towards 18th seed Romania after a superb win for GM Erik Blomqvist over GM Kirill Shevchenko.
fiftieth seed Canada regarded unlikely to proceed its heroics after GM Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux, who gained the essential 103-move sport towards Norway the day earlier than, was put to the sword in 27 strikes by GM David Navara, however wins on the underside boards produced a 2.5-1.5 win over the Nineteenth-seeded Czech Republic.
Spherical 4 guarantees to see extra mayhem, and we might get to see Caruana tackle chess legend GM Vasyl Ivanchuk of Ukraine, whose one-move blunder of a bit did not cease Ukraine beating Australia to retain a one hundred pc report.
2024 Chess Olympiad Spherical 4 Group Pairings: Open (High 15)
| No. | SNo | FED | Group | : | Group | FED | SNo | ||
| 1 | 1 | United States of America | : | Ukraine | 15 | ||||
| 2 | 9 | Hungary | : | Italy | 28 | ||||
| 3 | 16 | Serbia | : | India | 2 | ||||
| 4 | 3 | China | : | Armenia | 17 | ||||
| 5 | 21 | Vietnam | : | Uzbekistan | 4 | ||||
| 6 | 11 | Poland | : | Lithuania | 29 | ||||
| 7 | 36 | Montenegro | : | Azerbaijan | 12 | ||||
| 8 | 40 | Sweden | : | Spain | 13 | ||||
| 9 | 6 | Norway | : | Slovakia | 43 | ||||
| 10 | 32 | Georgia | : | England | 8 | ||||
| 11 | 30 | Denmark | : | Iran | 10 | ||||
| 12 | 42 | Latvia | : | Turkiye | 22 | ||||
| 13 | 50 | Canada | : | Greece | 23 | ||||
| 14 | 5 | Netherlands | : | North Macedonia | 62 | ||||
| 15 | 7 | Germany | : | Mongolia | 63 |
Girls’s Part: Romania, Greece, Argentina, Slovenia Maintain Attracts And Uzbekistan Upsets Hungary
After three rounds India, China, and Ukraine are the final groups from the highest 5 to have gained all of their matches. thirty fourth seed Uzbekistan (common score 2176) earned the match upset towards 14th seed Hungary (2320) by the narrowest of margins.
Though GM Alexandra Kosteniuk defeated GM Harika Dronavalli on the highest board of Switzerland vs. India, the three different clashes resulted in India’s favor. On board two, GM Vaishali Rameshbabu traded right into a same-color bishop endgame that she knew was profitable regardless of the fabric parity. All the black pawns have been on mild squares, and the white king’s superior exercise stretched the black protection till it cracked.
The subsequent two highest-rated groups have been additionally held to attracts. In Georgia (second seed) vs. Romania (twenty second), all 4 battles ended with white wins. Essentially the most tragic end result, by far, was on board 4 the place GM Bela Khotenashvili (2432), taking part in with beneath a minute, blundered a picturesque checkmate towards WIM Alessia-Mihaela Ciolacu (2160). After grabbing a knight on e2, she succumbed to an surprising iteration of the ladder checkmate.
An enormous upset on board 4 of Romania vs. Georgia after Khotenashvili misses a stupendous checkmate!https://t.co/q0MzWpwSi0#ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/LlFAWYjPtv
— chess24 (@chess24com) September 13, 2024
So far as colourful checkmates go, there have been a minimum of two others. In that India vs. Switzerland matchup, IM Divya Deshmukh discovered a pleasant pawn-checkmate, complimenting GM Benjamin Gledura‘s improbable king-hunt within the Open.
Not too lengthy after, commentator and IM Jovanka Houska discovered the explosive 46.Bxf6! to pressure resignation, on board two of England vs. Norway, which England gained with a 4-0 sweep. If the bishop’s taken, 47.Qd4 is checkmate.
Greece (twenty third seed) additionally pulled off the draw towards Poland (third seed). With attracts on the highest two boards, it was WIM Ekaterini Pavlidou (2141) who delivered the wanted level in a heavy-piece endgame towards IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya (2404). With 3/3 wins, Pavlidouis is ready to achieve 22.4 score factors, thus far.
The deadly blunder got here on transfer 42, after the gamers acquired 30 extra minutes. 42…Re5?? allowed an artistic-looking (although momentary) queen sacrifice and there was nothing Black may do to cease the royal procession of the pawn to the eighth rank.
The notable upset of the spherical was Uzbekistan’s towards the house crew of Hungary. There was a draw on board 4, a sudden finish on board three after a blunder by the Hungarian participant, and an enchanting rook endgame on board one which Uzbek WIM Afruza Khamdamova transformed towards WIM Zsoka Gaal. Each endgame is a possible pawn endgame, and White needed to keep away from the rook commerce in any respect prices with 33.Rh4!. As a substitute, White performed 33.h4?? after 9 seconds and shortly realized there was no manner to put it aside.
GM Hoang Thanh Trang gained an thrilling sport from the black facet of the Dutch Leningrad on board two, nevertheless it wasn’t sufficient to salvage her crew. That sport, that includes an incredible counterattack, is actually value trying out for readers who need “additional homework.”
On Saturday, India (common score 2467) will face France (2355), a crew that boasts three worldwide masters. China (2462) will face England (2297), which has two IMs and two WGMs on its crew. The opposition will get more durable with each passing spherical.
2024 Chess Olympiad Spherical 4 Group Pairings: Girls (High 15)
| No. | SNo | FED | Group | Res. | : | Res. | Group | FED | SNo |
| 1 | 1 | India | : | France | 13 | ||||
| 2 | 55 | Denmark | : | Hungary | 14 | ||||
| 3 | 15 | England | : | China | 4 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | Ukraine | : | Turkiye | 16 | ||||
| 5 | 7 | United States of America | : | Netherlands | 17 | ||||
| 6 | 9 | Spain | : | Mongolia | 18 | ||||
| 7 | 19 | Serbia | : | Kazakhstan | 10 | ||||
| 8 | 11 | Armenia | : | Vietnam | 20 | ||||
| 9 | 34 | Uzbekistan | : | Bulgaria | 12 | ||||
| 10 | 2 | Georgia | : | Greece | 23 | ||||
| 11 | 22 | Romania | : | Poland | 3 | ||||
| 12 | 28 | Slovenia | : | Azerbaijan | 6 | ||||
| 13 | 26 | Argentina | : | Germany | 8 | ||||
| 14 | 56 | Bosnia & Herzegovina | : | Switzerland | 21 | ||||
| 15 | 24 | Italy | : | North Macedonia | 57 |
NM Anthony Levin contributed reporting to this text.
The forty fifth FIDE Chess Olympiad is an enormous crew 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 Girls’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 taken under consideration provided that groups are tied. Gamers have 90 minutes per sport, plus half-hour from transfer 40, with a 30-second increment per transfer.
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