2024 Budapest Olympiad Round 4: Ukraine Wins vs. US, Vietnam Wins vs. Uzbekistan

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 today September 15 at 13:00 UTC for Round 5 with our host FM Gauri Shankar.

Overview (Open)

It was a tough day for the favorites. Apart from India, whose 3.5-0.5 score against Serbia was nothing short of impressive, the high rated teams were struggling — some, like the USA and Uzbekistan, even lost their matches. Hungary, China, and Poland were able to narrowly win their matches against Italy, Armenia, and Lithuania, respectively. In other news, GM Magnus Carlsen was not late to his game today.

You can find more results here.

The Top Teams

At the outset, the USA did not seem to be in significant danger of losing its match. GM Fabiano Caruana had a good game against GM Andrei Volokitin, and GM Wesley So was better for a long time against GM Vasyl Ivanchuk, while GM Leinier Dominguez Perez was also doing well against GM Ruslan Ponomariov. On board 4, GM Ray Robson was in trouble against GM Anton Korobov, but as Caruana won his game, matters did not look so dire. The USA's hopes would soon get dashed, though, as Dominguez allowed a repetition and So did not find the best continuation, allowing Ivanchuk to stabilize and even win the game after he won too many of So's pawns.

Korobov's connect-four game was noteworthy:

So too was Ivanchuk's powerful defensive display and very intriguing opening choice:

GM Ivanchuk in contemplation
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

The only other team with a 2750+ rating average, however, was far more fortunate. India crushed Serbia as GM Gukesh Dommaraju, GM Arjun Erigaisi, and GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi played with high precision against GM Alexandr Predke, GM Aleksandar Indjic, and GM Velimir Ivic, respectively. Gukesh was never worse against Predke, only making inaccuracies in the conversion here and there — inaccuracies that would prove to be difficult to capitalize on, in fact. In time pressure, Predke went on to lose an endgame which looked to be quite difficult to hold:

The Vietnamese team are surely one of the strongest dark horses in the event; today, they cemented their status as strong contenders to win the Olympiad as they beat yesteryear's dark horse: Uzbekistan. GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov and GM Le Quang Liem's game was a quiet affair, but GM Nodirbek Yakubboev's game against GM Ngoc Truong Son Nguyen was anything but. In the ever solid Semi-Tarrasch Defense, Yakubboev pushed his kingside pawns to get some initiative going, but this decision would later come to haunt him as Nguyen activated his pieces and slowly destroyed White's defenses:

Content creator GM Tuan Minh Le's powerful combination against GM Javokhir Sindarov was also remarkable:

The Biggest Upsets (Games)

This round did not include significant rating upsets, though there were some rather noteworthy results.

From a quiet Queen's Gambit Declined, FM Daniel Barrish of South Africa played a strong positional game against GM Luis Paulo Supi of Brazil.

Usually when one misses a chance against a 2600 player, they go on to lose, but IM Junhyeok Lee of South Korea found a way to win again against GM Jorge Cori of Peru.

Upsets (Teams)

Canada (vs. Greece), Tajikistan (vs. Mexico), Indonesia (vs. Hungary C), Morocco (vs. Uruguay), South Korea (vs. Peru) scored upsets wins, while Georgia (vs. England), Luxembourg (vs. Egypt), Malaysia (vs. Estonia), El Salvador (vs. Belgium) scored upset draws. In particular, South Korea's 3.5-0.5 score against the much higher rated Peru is significantly impressive. Canada and El Salvador have once again scored upsets, proving that they are both underrated teams.

Brilliant Games

GM Gudmundur Kjartansson of Iceland sacrificed a piece to draw Zambia's IM Andrew Kayonde's king out in the open:

FM Felix Xie of New Zealand uncorked a beautiful checkmate against GM Temur Kuybokarov of Australia:

Round 5 Pairings

After today's Abdusattorov vs. Liem game, the 2700 club will keep enjoying each other's company as India's GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi could face Azerbaijan's GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (who is placed strategically on board 4) and Vietnam's GM Le Quang Liem might play Poland's GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Other interesting potential matchups include GM Vasyl Ivanchuk vs. GM Peter Leko, GM Alexei Shirov vs. GM Ding Liren, and GM Magnus Carlsen vs. GM Ediz Gurel.

Overview (Women's)

The Uzbek team continues to greatly outperform its expected score as it defeated the Bulgarian team, who has the likes of GM Antoaneta Stefanova and IM Nurgyul Salimova. On board 6, Mongolia also did well to defeat Spain, while Turkiye's draw against Ukraine on board 4 was also not expected if one bases their expectations off ratings solely. The other top boards did not see close matches, though, as India, Hungary, China, and the United States of America won without too much difficulty.

You can find more results here.

The Top Teams

GM Harika Dronavalli of India recovered well after her loss yesterday, defeating IM Deimante Daulyte-Cornette in a well-played endgame:

GM Harika getting ready
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

Meanwhile, IM Divya Deshmukh was playing a brilliant attacking game against WGM Mitra Hejazipour but blundered at a critical moment and was actually lost. Hejazipour did not find the correct continuation, though, and Divya was able to recover:

China's 4-0 win was also notable as they were able to put together three different achievements in one match: first, England has a strong team, so China's win was not at all assured. Second, a 4-0 score in and of itself is impressive. Third, all four games showed stunning precision from team China: they all won with over 97% accuracy.

GM Jiner Zhu hunted some kings:

IM Yuxin Song's win against IM Jovanka Houska's pet Caro-Kann was also rather stunning:

The Biggest Upsets (Games)

WCM Paula Oviedo Acosta of Paraguay found a satisfying intermezzo against WFM Ema Walter of Slovakia and proceeded to convert well:

Upsets (Teams)

Argentina (vs. Germany), Monaco (vs. Israel), Scotland (vs. Canada), Paraguay (vs. Slovakia), Singapore (vs. Australia), Costa Rica (vs. Belgium), Wales (vs. Hungary C), Guam (vs. Trinidad and Tobago), and Guyana (vs. Guernsey) scored upset draws. No team scored an upset win!

A topsy-turvy game by WIM Sofia Mayorga Araya of Costa Rica against WIM Hanne Goossens of Belgium could have ended in perpetual at any moment, but Mayorga found a way to win eventually.

Brilliant Games

WGM Tatiana Dornbusch of Monaco played a powerful queen sacrifice to get a favorable material imbalance against IM Marsel Efroimski of Israel:

WIM Natalie Kanakova of the Czech Republic showed how dangerous of an opening the Dutch Defense, Leningrad Variation can be as she attacked Turkmenistan's WCM Meryem Agajanova's king:

Round 5 Pairings

With only seven teams on 8/8 match points, round 5 promises to be even more exciting as fewer and fewer teams settle at the top. Kazakhstan's strong performance will be put to the test against the star-studded Indian team, while Uzbekistan's own brilliant performance will have to contend with Georgia's all-star team.

Olympiad Tactics

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

Interview

Director of operations at Lichess, Theo Wait, caught up with 16-year-old IM Sravan Renjith of New Zealand as they discussed his first ever Olympiad, him meeting superGMs, and his crushing win against the accomplished GM Diego Flores.

Olympiad Miscellany

Team uniforms show the beauty of the Olympiad. Pictured is team Zambia.
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

Once again, the camaraderie of the Olympiad on full display. Pictured is team Grenada.
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE