2024 Budapest Olympiad Round 11: India Achieves Double Gold

Tournament Information

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

Lichess would like to thank GM Illia Nyzhnyk, IM Eric Rosen, and FM Gauri Shankar for covering the 2024 Budapest Olympiad!

Leaderboard (Open)

Overview (Open)

All the complex tiebreak scenarios that were being calculated on the 21st proved to be unnecessary as India soundly defeated Slovenia, winning gold, while China lost to the United States, which won silver. Uzbekistan's last round win against France clinched bronze for the defending champions. China, Serbia, and Armenia finished in tied 2nd with the United States, but their tiebreaks were worse than that of Uzbekistan.

You can find more results here.

The Top Teams

India's dominant performance in the Open section was nothing short of historic. Needing only a draw coming into the last round (with, again, a loss almost certainly being sufficient as well), team India did not play meekly at all. Indeed, the players clearly came to fight and wanted to further cement their prowess. On board 1, the anticipated match between tactical wizard GM Vladimir Fedoseev and world championship challenger GM Gukesh Dommaraju was surely a letdown for fans as Fedoseev did not find the correct setup in Eric Rosen's favorite Qa4 Cambridge Springs-esque London. Not finding the correct setup does not sound like such a travesty, but when one is facing a top player, especially an in-form, almost-2800 Gukesh, there is no coming back from an error of that nature:

On board 2, GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu faced the ever solid GM Anton Demchenko. The game seemed to be headed toward a draw, but just because a seemingly simple endgame arises, that does not at all mean that a draw is evident. Truly, Praggnanandhaa's pieces were more active and threats were looming. Demchenko went for a wrong king move and was then lost, but the strength of the correct move was not at all easy to appreciate:

GM Arjun Erigaisi is known as a creative player who has many opening weapons in his arsenal, and today he added to his reputation as he essayed the Scandinavian Defense against GM Jan Subelj. Normal moves by White meant that Black eventually equalized, and from an equal position, Arjun was not settling for a draw. Instead, he played on and outplayed White, entering into a pawn race in a rook endgame where Arjun's pawns would promote sooner. Subelj had seen enough and allowed a pretty checkmate to occur on the board.

GM Gukesh Dommaraju with director of operations Theo Wait
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

GM Ding Liren has not been having the best tournament, so he decided to call it a day early on with a quick draw against GM Fabiano Caruana. Of course, that meant that China was not really trying to win with a huge margin to make up for the tiebreak deficit against India — again, they would be dependent on India losing to Slovenia, which seemed rather far-fetched. In any case, Ding's quick draw was also welcome by Caruana, who had no reason to risk a lot, either:

With boards 3 and 4 seeing rather equal games from the start, it was GM Wesley So, the United States' sole winner yesterday, who also won today and clinched silver for the United States. So simply played a superbly accurate positional game in the Sicilian Defense, and when it was time to sacrifice an exchange to convert his positional plus into more tangible square control, So was up to the task:

Uzbekistan's match against France also saw three draws, but the draw on board 1 was not as simple as first meets the eye. GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov and GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave on the first board did gradually steer the game toward equality, however, and it was up to GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov, who was playing against GM Maxime Lagarde on board 4, to seal the deal for Uzbekistan. The engine may slightly disapprove of Vokhidov's 22...Be8, but, practically speaking, it was a powerful regrouping which ultimately won Black the game:

Serbia, which finished in 5th, had a strong performance and an even stronger final round, defeating Ukraine by a tremendous 3.5-0.5 score. A four queens game actually ended up being lost for the side who queened first: GM Volodymyr Onyshchuk. Onyshchuk played a complicated tactical struggle in a main line Sicilian Najdorf against GM Velimir Ivic; he lost when Ivic quickly got a second queen of his own and consolidated his material advantage:

Armenia's match against Iran was very exciting to follow as not only were there three decisive games, but the top board's game also swung back and forth. GM Robert Hovhannisyan blundered a piece against GM Bardiya Daneshvar, while GM Karen H. Grigoryan outplayed IM Sina Movahed in a Closed Ruy Lopez. On board 1, GM Haik M. Martirosyan helped secure 6th for Armenia as he defeated GM Parham Maghsoodloo in an up-and-down nerve-racking game:

The Biggest Upsets (Games)

K K Dinujaya Kodithuwakku of Sri Lanka played a flawless game against Jonathan Bodemar of Thailand:

Upsets (Teams)

Turkmenistan (vs. Israel), Mexico (vs. Denmark), Ecuador (vs. Portugal), Zimbabwe (vs. Venezuela), Pakistan (vs. Uganda), Namibia (vs. Cape Verde), Myanmar (vs. Brunei Darussalam), Qatar (vs. Sao Tome and Principe), Bhutan (vs. Guernsey), and Eswatini (vs. Bermuda) scored upset wins, while Canada (vs. Vietnam), Finland (vs. Cuba), Estonia (vs. Montenegro), Uruguay (vs. Switzerland), Cyprus (vs. Angola), Liechtenstein (vs. Monaco), Sri Lanka (vs. Thailand), Suriname (vs. Jordan), Saint Lucia (vs. Senegal), and Cayman Islands (vs. Ghana) scored upset draws.

Turkmenistan's win against Israel, Ecuador's win against Portugal, and Pakistan's win against Uganda, as well as Liechtenstein's draw with Monaco, Sri Lanka's draw with Thailand, and Suriname's draw with Jordan were significant rating upsets. Pakistan's win against Uganda included an impressive endgame win by Lichess streamer Mafaaz Khalid (Art-Vega) against the much higher rated IM Arthur Ssegwanyi of Uganda:

Brilliant Games

GM Zhao Zong-Yuan of Australia showed the attacking potential of the bishop pair as he sacrificed his queen against FM Endrit Uruci of Kosovo:

Board Prizes

Board 1 medals: GM Gukesh Dommaraju (gold), GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov (silver), GM Magnus Carlsen (bronze)
Board 2: GM Thai Dai Van Nguyen (gold), IM Toni Lazov (silver), GM Ediz Gurel (bronze)
Board 3: GM Arjun Erigaisi (gold), GM Yu Yangyi (silver), GM Tuan Minh Le (bronze)
Board 4: GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov (gold), GM Levon Aronian (silver), GM Alan Pichot (bronze)
Board 5: Frederik Svane (gold), GM Benjamin Gledura (silver), GM Velimir Ivic (bronze)

Category Prizes

(Groups are divided by a panel based on their initial starting rank; this process is conducted after round 3)

Group A: China (gold), Serbia (silver), Armenia (bronze)
Group B: Turkmenistan (gold), Latvia (silver), Kazakhstan (bronze)
Group C: Ecuador (gold), Zimbabwe (silver), Tajikistan (bronze)
Group D: Sri Lanka (gold), Liechtenstein (silver), Pakistan (bronze)
Group E: Myanmar (gold), Qatar (silver), Eswatini (bronze)

Leaderboard (Women's)

Overview (Women's)

The Indian women's team finished off as strongly as the Indian team in the Open did, winning against Azerbaijan with a 3.5-0.5 score to bring home gold. Kazakhstan's draw with the United States made Kazakhstan take silver and the United States bronze. Spain, Armenia, and Georgia, who defeated Hungary, Germany, and Poland, respectively, finished in tied 3rd with the United States but were edged out on tiebreak.

You can find more results here.

The Top Teams

Kazakhstan's match with the United States was an exhilarating sight to behold, but it ultimately mattered little to the Indian team as they powerfully defeated Azerbaijan. On board 1, it was GM Harika Dronavalli's turn to create some endgame magic as she converted a technical endgame against IM Gunay Mammadzada. The endgame may not have been so simple to convert, but Harika made it look easy:

On board 2, GM Vaishali Rameshbabu did not get much against IM Ulviyya Fataliyeva and had to settle for a draw, but IM Divya Deshmukh was there on board 3 to bring another victory for team India as her dormant English bishop soon became an extra piece:

To finish off India's amazing run at the 2024 Budapest Olympiad, IM Vantika Agrawal, who was under pressure against IM Khanim Balajayeva, profited off a blunder and won her game in style:

IM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova gave the United States some important victories in the past couple of rounds, but today, in a unique English opening with opposite-side castling, IM Bibisara Assaubayeva's bishop pair kept posing problems. Gradually, Tokhirjonova made small inaccuracies which culminated in her losing a pawn and then the game:

On board 2, IM Carissa Yip, who finished the tournament with 10/11, was there to "refute" the King's Indian Defense as she got a position against IM Meruert Kamalidenova that was reminiscent of the Maróczy Bind in the Sicilian Defense:

Bronze could have been snatched from the United States had GM Irina Krush lost to WIM Xeniya Balabayeva, but, as it stood, Krush put up stubborn resistance and was able to save the draw:

WIM Xeniya Balabayeva vs. GM Irina Krush
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

For the teams finishing in tied third, their matches went relatively easily as Spain defeated Hungary 3.5-0.5, Georgia won against Poland 3.5-0.5, and Armenia emerged victorious against Germany 3-1. Included is one instructive game from each match:

Spain vs. Hungary:

Georgia vs. Poland:

Armenia vs. Germany:

The Biggest Upsets (Games)

Apart from Essa Mariam's game (see next section), the biggest upset was Sri Lanka's WCM Ehsha Mishela Pallie's win against Monika Zhezhovska of North Macedonia:

Upsets (Teams)

Turkmenistan (vs. Croatia), New Zealand (vs. Mexico), Sri Lanka (vs. North Macedonia), Hong Kong, China (vs. Wales), Cameroon (vs. Fiji), and Guyana (vs. Bermuda) scored upset wins, while Australia (vs. Slovenia), United Arab Emirates (vs. Cuba), South Africa (vs. Scotland), Kyrgyzstan (vs. Moldova), Jordan (vs. Portugal), Thailand (vs. Bolivia), Aruba (vs. Barbados), and Eswatini (vs. Sudan) scored upset draws.

Turkmenistan's win against Croatia and Guyana's win against Bermuda, as well as the United Arab Emirates' draw with Cuba and South Africa's draw with Scotland were particularly significant. The United Arab Emirates' draw with Cuba saw a very big rating upset:

Essa Mariam of the United Arab Emirates was playing well against WGM Yaniela Forgas Moreno, but she did allow White a big chance when she played 29...Qe7??. As the game remained complicated, though, Essa Mariam was able to outplay her much higher rated opponent:

Brilliant Games

WGM Janelle Mae Frayna of the Philippines played a spectacular game full of sacrifices against FM Julia Alboredo of Brazil:

Board Prizes

Board 1 medals: GM Zhu Jiner (gold), IM Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (silver), GM Nana Dzagnidze (bronze)
Board 2: IM Carissa Yip (gold), GM Elisabeth Paehtz (silver), IM Song Yuxin (bronze)
Board 3: IM Divya Deshmukh (gold), IM Sabrina Vega Gutierrez (silver), GM Elina Danielian (bronze)
Board 4: IM Vantika Agrawal (gold), IM Alice Lee (silver), IM Anna M. Sargsyan (bronze)
Board 5: WFM Dana Kochavi (gold), WIM Nodira Nadirjanova (silver), IM Lu Miaoyi (bronze)

Category Prizes

(Groups are divided by a panel based on their initial starting rank; this process is conducted after round 3)

Group A: Spain (gold), Armenia (silver), Georgia (bronze)
Group B: Philippines (gold), Montenegro (silver), Latvia (bronze)
Group C: Turkmenistan (gold), Malaysia (silver), Sri Lanka (bronze)
Group D: Hong Kong, China (gold); Thailand (silver), Mozambique (bronze)
Group E: Cameroon (gold), Cayman Islands (silver), Netherlands Antilles (bronze)

Gaprindashvili Cup (Best federation = sum (open + women))

India (gold), United States of America (silver), Armenia (bronze)

Olympiad Tactics

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

Interview

Watch our interview on Instagram with gold medalist and new world number 3 (pending FIDE's publishing of the month's rating list), GM Arjun Erigaisi, after the final round.

Olympiad Miscellany

The Olympiad is a big event!
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

Open group photo
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

Women's group photo
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE