2024 Budapest Olympiad Round 10: India Defeats the US, Shares 1st in Women's

This article is a draft and is being updated.

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 21 at 09:00 UTC for Round 11 with our hosts IM Eric Rosen and FM Gauri Shankar.

Schedule

Leaderboard (Open)

Overview (Open)

India has virtually guaranteed gold at the 2024 Budapest Olympiad after it defeated the United States 2.5-1.5. For India to not be crowned the champions tomorrow, China has to beat the United States, India has to lose to Slovenia, and India's big tiebreak lead over China has to be overcome by China. This scenario, especially because of India's big tiebreak lead, is increasingly unlikely, so with that cushion in mind, India's chess tomorrow should be particularly calm. For its part, China did well today as it defeated the defending champion, Uzbekistan, while Slovenia's reward for defeating the Netherlands is to face India tomorrow.

You can find more results here.

The Top Teams

At the outset, the India vs. United States match was not looking so good for the top seed, the United States. All boards had relatively stable and equal, but complicated, positions, except board 3, where GM Arjun Erigaisi was applying strong positional pressure against GM Leinier Dominguez Perez. Said positional pressure eventually snowballed as Dominguez Perez went for a correct exchange sacrifice, after which he played an inaccurate followup with 25...g6 and 26...Bxb5. Arjun consolidated his advantage and pressed, converting accurately (bar perhaps moves 43 and 44):

It looked like the United States had the potential to bounce back, though, as GM Wesley So compact structure on the kingside gave him the opportunity to infiltrate with his queen, forcing GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu to weaken his kingside, allowing a tactic later on after So's kingside attack reached its climax:

Unfortunately for the United States, GM Fabiano Caruana's game against GM Gukesh Dommaraju was unraveling at the seams as, on the 34th move, Caruana played a seemingly innocuous move which just gave up the powerful passed pawn that was causing so much turmoil in Gukesh's position. Ultimately, Caruana's sideline in the Closed Catalan backfired as Gukesh's Catalan bishop eventually decided the game:

With a draw on board 4 between GM Levon Aronian and GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, India secured victory against the United States and will go into the final round of the 2024 Budapest Olympiad with confidence.

Of course, India cannot rest on its laurels yet as China's win against Uzbekistan means that China is still in contention for gold, no matter how statistically unlikely. China also won with a 2.5-1.5 margin and with two wins, one loss, and a draw. China could have won with an even bigger margin, however, as GM Ding Liren was again winning today against GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov. As was the case yesterday, though, Ding had to make a tough choice among many appealing candidates, and after he did not find the correct sequence, Abdusattorov was able to clinch the draw:

In turn, GM Wang Yue lost against GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov as the latter's rooks made an incursion on the 2nd rank:

GM Yu Yangyi righted the ship, though, with a sudden dark-square-intense mating attack against GM Javokhir Sindarov's king:

With match equality around the corner, it was GM Wei Yi, who had a winning position for a long time against GM Nodirbek Yakubboev, who eventually converted in a difficult queen vs. two rooks position:

Hungary vs. Serbia and Ukraine vs. Armenia, which were drawn, meant that the teams in shared third after round 9 will need a match win in round 11 to have the possibility of a podium finish.

The Biggest Upsets (Games)

Upsets (Teams)

Brilliant Games

Round 11 Pairings

All eyes will be on the Slovenia vs. India match. A draw is all what is required for India to ascertain gold. If India loses and China wins against the United States, a big difference in tiebreaks between India and China has to be overcome for China to win gold.

Leaderboard (Women's)

Overview (Women's)

Coming into round 10, Kazakhstan was leading India by a point. With a crucial victory by India against China, and a drawn match between Kazakhstan and Georgia, India is now in tied 1st, and ahead on tiebreaks, with Kazakhstan. As the United States faces Kazakhstan in round 11, the United States also has its chances for gold if they are able to win their match and India either loses its match against Azerbaijan or draws (if drawn, tiebreaks would come into play). Poland, too, has chances to win gold if it wins its match against Georgia.

The Top Teams

The match between Kazakhstan and Georgia saw four draws, but those draws were anything but quiet affairs. In fact, on boards 1, 2, and 3, White was pressing, while on board 4, Black was at some point even completely winning. On board 1, GM Nana Dzagnidze playing White and IM Bibisara Assaubayeva on the Black side chose to play a highly unconventional King's Indian Defense where Black played a king fianchetto on the kingside. Dzagnidze was much better, and not so just because the engine favors space too much, but ultimately did not find the precise continuation and had to settle for equality:

In a highly complicated attacking position worthy of much deeper further analysis, IM Meruert Kamalidenova had a significant advantage against IM Lela Javakhishvili, but after she played a safe bishop retreat, too many pieces were traded and the draw became obvious:

Board 3 between GM Nino Batsiashvili and WIM Xeniya Balabayeva also saw twists and turns, but was ultimately drawn. The game of the match, however, was played between WIM Alua Nurman and GM Bella Khotenashvili, where, from a closed position in the Ruy Lopez, Khotenashvili outmaneuvered Nurman and gained a significant advantage. The nature of the edge had to do with Khotenashvili's powerful pawns. Indeed, to break through on the queenside with her pawns, Khotenashvili sacrificed a knight on move 52, which later analysis proved to be an incorrect decision. Nurman was not out of the woods just yet and had to defend precisely. On move 61, the engine even gave a lead for Nurman, but the engine's decision to play on in such a situation is not human at all, and with risk not being necessary at all, Nurman kept defending and eventually drew the game:

In contrast to the chaotic draws in the Georgia vs. Kazakhstan match, the India vs. China match was much more tranquil. Boards 1, 2, and 4 saw rather straightforward and rather non-confrontational draws, but it was IM Divya Deshmukh who turned the tide for team India as she won with astounding positional precision in the Petrov Defense against WGM Shiqun Ni:

The United States' win against Ukraine and Poland's win against Germany were critical for said teams' podium hopes. Poland's sole win came from IM Oliwia Kiolbasa, who created a powerful storm against WGM Hanna Marie Klek's king:

The United States' match was more decisive, with boards 2 and 3 trading blows. It was IM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova's long endgame grind against IM Yuliia Osmak which sealed the deal for the United States:

The Biggest Upsets (Games)

Upsets (Teams)

Brilliant Games

Round 11 Pairings

In the Women's, the situation is a bit more complicated as India does not have as big of a tiebreak lead as it does in the Open. Even if India wins and Kazakhstan wins, Kazakhstan could still leapfrog India and win gold. The matches tomorrow will be particularly fierce!

Olympiad Tactics

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

Olympiad Miscellany