2024 Budapest Olympiad R8: India 16/16 in Open, Falters vs. Poland in Women's

Tournament Information

Information about the schedule, Lichess broadcast, and Lichess stream coverage can all be found in our preview article.

Lichess will be covering the Chess Olympiad with live camera feeds and rotating commentators: GM Illia Nyzhnyk, IM Eric Rosen, and FM Gauri Shankar! Make sure to tune in tomorrow September 20 at 13:00 UTC for Round 9 with our host GM Illia Nyzhnyk.

Schedule

Leaderboard (Open)

Overview (Open)

With three more rounds to go, India has kept up its blistering start and pulled off a resounding victory against Iran. Hungary, Uzbekistan, and the United States of America were able to narrowly win against Armenia, Serbia, and France, respectively. Vietnam held Norway to a draw, while China bounced back with a 2.5-1.5 win against Romania. On the individual front, GM Arjun Erigaisi, GM Gukesh Dommaraju, and GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov are still gaining rating. One other player who has also gained some rating is none other than world #1 GM Magnus Carlsen, who is going on his 14th year as world #1.

You can find more results here.

The Top Teams

On paper, India vs. Iran was a very close match. The Indian team is in tremendous form, however, and has been slicing through the tournament with precision and dominance. Simply put, everything that could go wrong went wrong for team Iran. Indeed, India's 3.5-0.5 score is not wholly reflective of what was going on in the match. GM Parham Maghsoodloo was marginally worse against GM Gukesh Dommaraju, but he was able to claw his way back. Just as he did so, though, he blundered a piece in a position where he had three pawns for the piece:

GM M. Amin Tabatabaei was also better against GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, but Praggnanandhaa put up very stiff resistance and it was difficult to prove anything special for Tabatabaei. On board 3, GM Bardiya Daneshvar went for a dubious positional decision in 20. Be3 and the juggernaut, GM Arjun Erigaisi, converted with tremendous accuracy:

To make matters worse for Iran, even after they had mathematically lost the match, GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi was finessing his winning position against GM Pouya Idani. He converted soon enough, and GM Idani may not be ecstatic to learn that the very interesting material imbalance sacrifice starting with 15...Nxe4 would have kept him in the game:

In contrast to the storm on board 1, the board 2 match between Hungary and Armenia was a much calmer affair. The first three boards saw rather short and quiet draws, but GM Benjamin Gledura was able to secure the win for Hungary after he was able to artificially castle his not-so-unsafe king and made use of rolling pawns in the center of the board:

Uzbekistan vs. Serbia was nowhere near as calm, but the three draws on the bottom boards meant that GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov had to win a rather unwinniable endgame — which he, of course, won:

If you want to see engine-like precision, look no further than the first three boards of the USA vs. France match. The odd one out was board 4, where GM Maxime Lagarde and GM Levon Aronian played slightly more complicated chess, and Aronian was able to navigate the complications with alacrity:

GM Ding Liren is still choosing to sit out; the decisive force for team China in round 8 was GM Yu Yangyi, who defeated GM Kirill Shevchenko in a rather rare line of the Ruy Lopez:

Vietnam has continued to impress as it drew the higher-rated Norway. Despite GM Magnus Carlsen's better assessment of the material imbalance against GM Le Quang Liem:

, Norway was still unable to win as content creator GM Tuan Minh Le positionally dominated GM Aryan Tari:

The Biggest Upsets (Games)

Kaieem Elizee of Saint Lucia caused a big rating upset as he won against FM Haruna Nsubuga after the latter blundered a double attack:

Upsets (Teams)

Cuba (vs. Israel), Brazil (vs. Bulgaria), Scotland (vs. Latvia), Kyrgyzstan (vs. Colombia), Turkmenistan (vs. Iceland), United Arab Emirates (vs. Egypt), Angola (vs. Hungary C), Tunisia (vs. Kosovo), Sri Lanka (vs. Sudan), Myanmar (vs. Barbados), Kuwait (vs. Netherlands Antilles), and Cambodia (vs. Gabon) scored upset wins, while Moldova (vs. Czech Republic), Belgium (vs. Hungary B), Ireland (vs. Australia), Faroe Islands (vs. Switzerland), Algeria (vs. Mexico), Pakistan (vs. Morocco), and Libya (vs. Dominican Republic) scored upset draws.

Of particular significance are Krgyzstan's win against Colombia, Angola's win against Hungary C, Tunisia's win against Kosovo, Kuwait's win against Netherlands Antilles, Cambodia's win against Gabon, as well as Algeria's draw against Mexico and Libya's draw against Dominican Republic.

The next game is strikingly reminiscent of the King's Indian Defense!

Brilliant Games

GM Osvaldo Zambrana of Bolivia played an absolutely scintillating attack against GM Cristobal Henriquez Villagra of Chile and finished it off with the stunning 34...Rd4!!

Round 9 Pairings

All eyes will be on the India vs. Uzbekistan match as the rising Uzbek team hopes to stop India's sweep. A key encounter will be GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov vs. GM Gukesh Dommaraju, two uncompromising juniors who are knocking on the door of 2800. It will also be intriguing to see if GM Ding Liren will play against Iran, and, if so, what he has in store against GM Parham Maghsoodloo. Other interesting superGM games include GM Fabiano Caruana vs. GM Richard Rapport and GM Magnus Carlsen vs. GM Vladimir Fedoseev.

Leaderboard (Women's)

Overview (Women's)

Just one round is enough to overturn the tough labor of previous rounds. India still leads the women's section, but now it shares the lead with Poland, who beat it in round 8, and Kazakhstan, who narrowly won against France in a topsy-turvy match. Ukraine is still in contention as it defeated Hungary, and so too are the USA and Armenia, who both won against Uzbekistan and Mongolia with a big 3.5-0.5 margin.

You can find more results here.

The Top Teams

To start, matters looked complicated in the Poland vs. India match. IM Alina Kashlinskaya had a slight advantage against GM Harika Dronavalli, but so too did all the other players playing White. Out of the opening, the four boards were able to retain their starting move opening advantage and pressed on. Boards 2 and 3, though, saw White blundering away the advantage in the late middlegame, and the White players on those two boards then blundered further and allowed a Black victory:

and

Tragically for India, IM Vantika Agrawal was unable to offset IM Alina Kashlinskaya's chaotic endgame victory against GM Harika Dronavalli:

GM Harika Dronavalli swarmed by media before the start of her game
Photo: Mark Livshitz / FIDE

Just one mistake by Vantika, in a complicated position and with active time trouble, was all it took for India to lose the match:

In the Hungary vs. Ukraine match, GM Anna Ushenina's textbook positional dominance in a Queen's Gambit Declined was something to admire. Her conversion in the endgame was less stellar, though, but she was still able to get the job done:

Another heartbreaking match for the losers was France's loss to Kazakhstan. The first two boards saw rather logical results from start to finish, but board 3 saw a tough loss for IM Pauline Guichard, who suddenly found herself in a "who's mating whom" type of scenario:

Just as in India's match, WIM Natacha Benmesbah was unable to save the match for France as she could not convert against WIM Amina Kairbekova:

The Biggest Upsets (Games)

Sylvi Cabral of Aruba won against WIM Silvia Carolina Mazariegos in a slightly better position when the latter lost on time:

Upsets (Teams)

Iran (vs. Greece), Bangladesh (vs. Sweden), Mexico (vs. Norway), Moldova (vs. Hungary B), Costa Rica (vs. Luxembourg), Tajikistan (vs. Ecuador), Jamaica (vs. Denmark), Cyprus (vs. Puerto Rico), Aruba (vs. Guatemala), Maldives (vs. Kosovo), Tanzania (vs. Guam), Bahrain (vs. Bermuda), and Cayman Islands (vs. Brunei Darussalam) scored upset wins, while Italy (vs. Azerbaijan), Ireland (vs. Cuba), Chile (vs. Croatia), Panama (vs. Monaco), Thailand (vs. Dominican Republic), Morocco (vs. Nicaragua), and Hong Kong, China (vs. Uganda) scored upset draws.

Bangladesh's win against Sweden and Moldova's win against Hungary B were impressive; so too were Ireland's draw against Cuba and Chile's draw against Croatia.

WFM Ana Petricenco had to win against WIM Dorina Demeter to secure victory for her team. She insisted on winning the endgame and her hard work eventually paid off:

Brilliant Games

Lourdes Lorena Vasquez Jaen of Panama sacrificed her knight against WIM Marija Zvereva of Monaco and was determined on keeping it there:

Round 9 Pairings

The tournament has been opened up and many teams can conceivably win the entire Olympiad now. Kazakhstan vs. Poland and the United States of America vs. India (foreshadowing the match in the Open?!) will be crucial matches. Note that the match on board 2, Canada vs. Hungary, is a fixed-board match as the host country always plays on board 2.

Olympiad Tactics

The Turkish chess trainer and FM Nazmi Can Doğan alias @NaSil is taking tactical snippets from the Olympiad:

Olympiad Miscellany

GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu always has time for fans.
Photo: Mark Livshitz / FIDE