2024 Budapest Olympiad Round 7: India Defeats China, Two Points Ahead 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 19 at 13:00 UTC for Round 8 with our host GM Illia Nyzhnyk.

Schedule

Leaderboard (Open)

Overview (Open)

India may not have had the most dominant score today, but the true question is: was it in any trouble? The answer continues to be no, and team India's dominance of the 2024 Budapest Olympiad has been a sight to behold. Vietnam's and Lithuania's underdog stories have not necessarily ended, but they have definitely experienced setbacks as Vietnam lost to Iran and Lithuania lost to Hungary, both by a rather narrow 1.5-2.5 margin. The defending champion, Uzbekistan, is still in contention as it defeated Ukraine, while the top seed, the United States of America, emerged victorious against Greece to also keep its hopes of gold alive. The fated match between world champion GM Ding Liren and GM Gukesh Dommaraju was not to be as Ding took the day off; Gukesh has a lot to be happy about, though, because with his win today, he has moved up to world #5 and is at a career high rating of 2780. The same can be said for GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who has also reached a 2780 rating and celebrated his birthday on the 18th of September.

You can find more results here.

The Top Teams

A win for team China today would have completely shaken up the standings, putting China in 1st and India in 2nd, but as had become clear as the round progressed, China had little chances to win the match. Indeed, only Gukesh had a disadvantage — and that for a brief moment. The other boards were doing well, with GM Pentala Harikrishna having a better position against GM Wang Yue for some time; GM Arjun Erigaisi, too, was at some point better against GM Bu Xiangzhi, though, realistically, even if Arjun followed the engine's recommendation, there was not much to play for. All in all, India was not in any real danger, and after today, Gukesh's nickname can be changed to "King Arthur", for he controlled his Knights of the Round Table masterfully. His endgame knight dance was quite spectacular:

GM Pentala Harikrishna played a fine game, but the cold-blooded machine finds a stunning improvement: on move 29, 29...Rd3!! could have been a better try for Black instead of Pentala's 29...Nd3.

Vietnam was not doing too badly against Iran, who is in fact in sole second now and has a very strong team. GM Le Quang Liem and GM Ngoc Truong Son Nguyen held GM Parham Maghsoodloo and GM M. Amin Tabatabaei to draws, respectively, while GM Minh Tuan Le defended a losing position against GM Bardiya Daneshvar and was able to draw. 15-year-old FM Banh Gia Huy was not so fortunate, though, as he had to find the very awkward-looking 28. Rh2 (it was important to keep the rook defended) to hold the fort against GM Pouya Idani:

Another rising star, Lithuania, had its chances against the host team, Hungary. GM Titas Stremavicius had an advantage against GM Richard Rapport, but he decided to avoid risks and took the draw in a better position. GM Tomas Laurusas was at some point winning against GM Benjamin Gledura, but he was also lost later on, so the resulting draw in that game made a lot of sense from a "fairness" perspective. GM Valery Kazakouski was outplayed by GM Ferenc Berkes, however, and he was able to save a draw only after Berkes went for an incorrect queen exchange. On board 2, it was GM Peter Leko, a former world championship challenger and almost-world-champion, who saved the day for Hungary as he showed very good preparation against GM Paulius Pultinevicius' Nyezhmetdinov-Rossolimo Attack:

Defending champions Uzbekistan may have suffered a setback against Vietnam in round 4, but they are definitely still in the running. Uzbekistan seems to be finding its form as it passed Ukraine hassle-free. GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov's Sicilian crush showcased the typical Nd5 Sicilian tactic and amazing defensive technique:

GM Javokhir Sindarov's positional masterpiece on the White side of the Caro-Kann Defense was a textbook positional endgame grind:

One particular game must be mentioned, for GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda was once again the victim of chessboard tragedy as he blundered what seemed like an elementary fork. However, what Duda actually missed was that after 39. g4 Kf8 40. Re6 Nf4, White has 41. Bd6+! Kf7 42. Re7+!. Fortunately for Duda, had he saved the draw, it would not have mattered as Poland would still have lost to Romania.

One of (if not the) greatest players in the history of chess has a way of making chess look easy:

The Biggest Upsets (Games)

Matthew Bailey of Antigua and Barbuda has had a great tournament so far, and in round 7, he made it even better as he beat a CM, CM Peter Rowe of Guernsey:

Upsets (Teams)

Andorra (vs. Australia), North Macedonia (vs. Switzerland), Honduras (vs. Uganda), Eritrea (vs. Netherlands Antilles), Guyana (vs. Cote d'Ivoire), Maldives (vs. Jersey), and Saint Lucia (vs. Sao Tome and Principe) scored upset wins, while Bangladesh (vs. Slovakia) and Iraq (vs. Kosovo) scored upset draws.

Honduras' (2032 average rating) 3-1 win against Uganda (2235.75) was particularly impressive.

3...Be7 against the Paulsen Variation of the French Defense is extremely rare, but FM Alejandro Jose Chinchilla of Honduras, playing against IM Arthur Ssegwanyi of Uganda, showed that it is a completely viable weapon:

Brilliant Games

GM Maxime-Vachier Lagrave played a game that had it all: a unique opening, deep opening preparation, clever tactics, accurate defense, and stunning endgame conversion.

Round 8 Pairings

India has been doing very well so far, but if Iran wins in round 8, India would get leapfrogged. The USA vs. France will see GM Fabiano Caruana face GM Maxime-Vachier Lagrave, and GM Le Quang Liem's stellar form will be put under the test as he will face GM Magnus Carlsen.

Leaderboard (Women's)

Overview (Women's)

India has an even more comfortable lead in the Women's section as its victory over Georgia in round 7, as well as Poland's draw with Ukraine, meant that India is two match points ahead of Poland, Kazakhstan, and France. Poland could have won against Ukraine, but IM Oliwia Kiolbasa, round 6's hero against China, had a tough endgame to hold against IM Nataliya Buksa. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan's win against Azerbaijan and France's win against Spain put them in shared second.

You can find more results here.

The Top Teams

With GM Harika Dronavalli and IM Divya Deshmukh having worse positions at one time, India was not looking as dominant as it was in its other matches. However, the engine's +1 evaluation was extremely difficult to appreciate and may not even have been "that good", so to say that Harika and Divya escaped would be an exaggeration. In contrast, GM Vaishali Rameshbabu and IM Vantika Agrawal were only equal at various rare points throughout their games — otherwise, they had big advantages against IM Lela Javakhishvili and GM Bella Khotenashvili, respectively. Vaishali refused move repetition and had no problems proving the win:

Vantika, at the same time, was proving that she, too, could control the Knights of the Round Table:

India's win meant that Poland also had to win to keep up with the leaders. Unfortunately for Poland, while boards 2 and 4 saw somewhat staid draws, boards 1 and 3 saw decisive results, but only one in Poland's favor. IM Yuliia Osmak pushed too many pawns and too many of the wrong pawns, eventually ceding control of large portions of the board to IM Alina Kashlinskaya; however, the overcautious 31...Qc7 by Kashlinskaya could have been punished with 32. g5 by Osmak. As it stood, Osmak did not find the kingside-shattering 32. g5 and went on to lose:

With Kashlinskaya's win, Ukraine was on the edge of defeat, but IM Nataliya Buksa was not going to let her team go down without a fight. With tenacity and resolve, Buksa found a way to win a seemingly drawn endgame against IM Oliwia Kiolbasa:

Many other games caught viewers' attention. First was WIM Zsoka Gaal of Hungary having to win again against WGM Regina Theissl Pokorna of Austria — after having blown away her advantage — this time in the infamous rook + bishop vs. rook endgame:

WIM Alua Nurman navigated the hair-raising complications against IM Gulnar Mammadova astoundingly well:

The Biggest Upsets (Games)

WCM Paula Oviedo Acosta of Paraguay has already been featured previously. In round 7, she defeated well-known content creator WFM Anna Cramling Bellon:

Upsets (Teams)

Uzbekistan (vs. Greece), Lithuania (vs. Romania), Philippines (vs. Argentina), Turkmenistan (vs. Cuba), Malaysia (vs. Hungary B), Tunisia (vs. Indonesia), Eritrea (vs. Mozambique), and Maldives (vs. Brunei Darussalam) scored upset wins, while Iran (vs.Serbia), Sri Lanka (vs. Norway), Costa Rica (vs. Scotland), Trinidad & Tobago (vs. North Macedonia), Lebanon (vs. Jamaica), and Morocco (vs. Jordan) scored upset draws.

Lebanon and Sri Lanka's draws were a significant rating upset, though in terms of wins, Turkmenistan's (1956.25 average rating) win against Cuba (2200) was notable. Malaysia's (1977.5) win against Hungary B (2196.5) was close behind.

Brilliant Games

From a deceptively harmless double fianchetto system, IM Deysi Cori T. of Peru was able to whip up a vortex of tactics against IM Eline Roebers of the Netherlands:

Round 8 Pairings

With India's dominating lead, a victory for Poland will only mean that they would tie India in 1st. That is surely necessary for the Polish team, though, because if they want to win gold, they have to stop India's sweep. Kazakhstan vs. France, both on 12 match points similar to Poland and in 2nd place behind India, will also be a very important match for the overall standings.

Olympiad Tactics

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

Olympiad Miscellany

World champion GM Ding Liren enjoying some football
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

Judit Polgar's annual Global Chess Festival
Photo: Mark Livshitz / FIDE

An animal-themed chess set
Photo: Anna Shtourman