Nine Biggest Stars of the Women's Olympiad!

It’s over. After nearly two long weeks, it’s finally over. India have done it. They lived up to the hype and won Olympiad gold in both the women’s and open sections. There was drama. There was excitement. There was failure. In the end, some stars shone brighter than others. These are the nine women’s chess players who really made the Olympiad all that we wanted it to be!

No. 9: Zhu Jiner (China)

China is the best women’s chess country in the world no doubt, but it was a big question how they would fare at the Olympiad without any of their top three players. (According to Chess.com reporter Mike Klein, Ju Wenjun and Tan Zhongyi decided to focus on the upcoming Women’s World Championship match instead, while Lei Tingjie did not want to participate if the other two were sitting out.)

In the end, they didn’t medal, but not for a lack of good individual performances. China actually had the most board points of any team (34½/44, compared to India’s 31/44). All five of their players scored at least 75% and gained rating. China’s clear best player was Zhu Jiner on Board 1. Zhu Jiner is currently the youngest woman in the world with the GM title, still just 21 years old. She showed why with a thorough 2597 performance, taking Board 1 gold. She finished the tournament at 2499, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the last time we see her under 2500 for a long time.

Board 1 gold medallist Zhu Jiner. Credit: Michal Walusza.

No. 8: Zsóka Gaál (Hungary)

The Hungarian women’s team didn’t get much of the spotlight even though Budapest was hosting the Olympiad. They finished in 14th place, matching their seed, but individually was a different story. Hungary’s biggest star, 17-year-old Zsóka Gaál, earned the WGM title and also made an IM norm on Board 1. It’s her 2nd IM norm in a row, after she nearly made a GM norm last month in one of Hungary’s well-known GM norm round-robin tournaments.

At a live rating of 2398, Zsóka Gaál is currently Europe’s top junior girl by a wide margin (Eline Roebers is next at 2331). She first reached 2300+ in late 2021, but has stalled in the two-and-a-half years since. Nevertheless, she has been consistently playing norm tournaments in that time and these past few months, it’s finally paid off. Zsóka’s trajectory reminds me a bit of the player who is two years older and No. 1 on this list. Only time will tell if Zsóka has similar success.

No. 7: Eman Sawan (Palestine)

16-year-old Eman Sawan (1972) wasn’t on one of the medal contenders, far from it at as Palestine aren’t even one of the top 100 seeds. But Eman herself became a medal contender when she had a perfect score on Board 1, starting 7/7. The individual board medals are based solely on performance rating, which tends to be less accurate for perfect or near-perfect scores. Eman’s perfect score gave her a performance rating above 2600 (because her opposition was rated just above 1800). With no one else likely to finish on a performance that high, Eman had a decent chance to win Board 1 gold ahead of GMs like Kosteniuk or Dzagnidze.

Even though Eman isn’t one of the top players worldwide, you might already recognize her from a gofundme several months ago that supported her trip to the Olympiad. Her family are refugees from Gaza, and she’s been living in Jordan where she was born. As a refugee, she doesn’t have the same rights to education or chess tournaments as citizens. But none of that has stopped her from getting to 1900 rating and now over 2000. At the Olympiad, she couldn’t even play the first round because her teammates didn’t get their visas until one day too late.

In the end, Eman drew the critical game she needed to win to clinch Board 1 gold. Overall, her 8/9 score was still amazing and shows what hidden talents are out there ready to grow if they just receive the opportunity to do so. I hope Eman continues to receive support to cultivate her potential in chess and beyond.

Eman Sawan (left) with one of her teammates. Credit: Anna Shtourman.

No. 6: Alice Lee (USA)

For better or worse, 14-year-old Alice Lee had to play all the way down on Board 4 even though she was basically the same rating as Team USA’s Board 1 and all their other higher boards really. There is only one way to have success in that position, and that is to beat all the lower-rated players. Alice basically did just that, starting out with a near-perfect 6½/7.

When the time came for the critical matches at the end, Alice came up with three clutch draws against similar-level players. That helped Team USA draw the eventual gold and silver medallists, India and Kazakhstan, and also beat the defending Olympiad champions Ukraine. Each of those results were critical for Team USA to get bronze in the end, their first since 2006. Alice got Board 4 silver, and it would have been gold if not for another otherworldly performance later on in this list.

No. 5: Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kazakhstan)

When the Olympiad started, Bibisara Assaubayeva seemed content with just locking down Board 1 with draws and letting her lower-rated teammates decide the match outcome. But when it came time to face the big-shot opponents, Bibisara stepped it up a notch. Her first win came against GM Harika. Although Kazakhstan still lost that match against India, they wouldn’t have ended up with the silver medal without Bibisara’s other wins against France and Team USA.

Bibisara was Kazakhstan’s only player rated above 2400, or even 2360. They needed her to be solid on Board 1 to have a chance to medal. She was solid (finishing unbeaten), and they did medal.

No. 4: Vantika Agrawal (India)

With India’s top-rated player Humpy Koneru sitting out of the Olympiad, it appeared that their top two boards Harika and Vaishali would need to have good tournaments for India to avenge Chennai 2022 and deliver the gold. But even though neither Harika nor Vaishali really had good tournaments, India still won gold. The lower boards were the reason why.

Let’s start with Vantika Agrawal on Board 4. Vantika didn’t have a great start to the Olympiad, drawing in the first round against Jamaica’s Raehanna Brown, more than 400 points lower-rated. That would be the end of her struggles. India would not have beat the eventual runners-up Kazakhstan if not for her Round 5 win against Alua Nurman. Although Vantika just barely couldn’t save India against Poland, she came back the very next day and beat GM Irina Krush to salvage a match draw against the other eventual medallists, Team USA.

Overall, Vantika finished 7½/9 with a career-best 2558 performance. That won Board 4 gold over Alice Lee by a wide margin. It’s safe to say India would not have won team gold without her.

Vantika Agrawal receiving her individual gold from Zhu Chen. Credit: Michal Walusza.

No. 3: Alua Nurman (Kazakhstan)

How did Kazakhstan become one of the favourites to medal when that didn’t wasn’t the case just a few months ago? The answer was on the three lower boards. All three made IM or GM norms over the summer, which made it possible for Kazakhstan to field a full team all rated above 2300. It was still an unanswered question though whether they could maintain that success, and two out of the three in particular delivered.

Xeniya Balabayeva went undefeated on Board 3, but it was Alua Nurman who stole the show on Board 4. The tipping point was the Round 8 match against France where Alua was moved up a board and found herself in a losing position against Pauline Guichard. With Amina Kairbekova also losing on the bottom board, Kazakhstan were going to lose and their medal hopes would be over. But Alua came back to win and Amina saved a draw. Kazakhstan took the match.

The next round, Kazakhstan had a chance to lead the Olympiad if they beat Poland. With all other boards drawn, it came down to Alua. Again she was worse but again she came back to win. Kazakhstan had the lead over everyone, even India. In the next match against Georgia, Alua was losing again, this time to GM Bella Khotenashvili. It seemed like this was the end for Kazakhstan, losing against a GM. But Alua came back again to draw the game and the match. A round later, Kazakhstan won their first-ever Olympiad medal with silver, and that draw against a GM also earned Alua her final IM norm.

Alua Nurman interview. Credit: Maria Emelianova.

No. 2: Carissa Yip (USA)

Carissa Yip hasn’t been so active lately now that she is in university at Stanford. She hadn’t played any games for five months until July when she started getting in warm-up tournaments for the Olympiad. With only one out of four of those tournaments good and two bad, it was hard to guess what to expect from Carissa.

Or at least that was true until the Olympiad began. Carissa proceeded to destroy everybody. She was the Oliwia Kiołbasa of this Olympiad. She started out 7½/8 on Board 2. Overall, she finished with 10/11, only drawing one game against anyone besides Divya. Carissa was the overall best performer in the whole Women’s Olympiad with a monstrous 2634 performance, of course good for Board 2 gold. And most importantly, her final-round win against Kazakhstan was what clinched the bronze medal for Team USA.

Carissa Yip with her father. Credit: Michal Walusza.

No. 1: Divya Deshmukh (India)

India! India! India! might as well be Divya! Divya! Divya! The 18-year-old from Nagpur, Divya Deshmukh wasn’t just the biggest star of the Olympiad, she’s becoming the biggest star in women’s chess. Divya started the year at just 2420, already effectively her career-best rating. Since March, she’s been gaining rating literally every month. She’s been playing well above 2500 level basically that entire time, and now she finally got the chance to prove it at a top women’s tournament.

Divya was was the only one for India to play every round. She started 7/8 and finished 9½/11. When India fell out of the lead for the first time after Round 9, Divya stepped up. She got the only win against China, which put India back in the lead. Then in the last round, she was the first one to get a win. That ensured no repeat of last Olympiad. This time, India would be the gold medallists. Individually, Divya took Board 3 gold as the 2nd-best performer in the whole Women’s Olympiad. She also hit a major milestone, crossing 2500 for the first time. India is at the top of women’s chess and so is Divya.

Divya Deshmukh receiving her individual gold from Susan Polgar. Credit: Maria Emelianova.

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This Olympiad belonged to the youth. All of the individual board gold medallists were 21 or younger. And every single one of the nine stars on this list are also 21 or under.

It’s not the biggest surprise the adults couldn’t keep up with the kids when none of the best ones showed up. Some did have good or even great tournaments, just not as exceptional as the ones on this list. Last month’s Women’s Grand Prix leg winner Alina Kashlinskaya was on track for gold on Board 1, but didn’t have the best finish and it at least in part cost Poland in the end. The best performing non-kids were definitely Spain, who surprisingly finished close to the medals in 4th place even though no one had picked them. Sara Khadem and veteran Sabrina Vega Gutierrez both took individual silver on Boards 1 and 3 respectively.

The next Olympiad will take place in 2026 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. It is fitting that the next Olympiad will be in Asia since that’s the center of the chess world right now. (Europe didn’t medal in either section this time.) For the first time in a long time, another country is presenting a challenge to China’s dominance over women’s chess. Hopefully we’ll see that battle get to play out in 2026.

The gold medallists India. Credit: Michal Walusza.

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