6 Surprising Blunders At 45th Chess Olympiad In Budapest

At any prestigious tournament, we are all watching for blunders to be made, particularly by the most elite players. Is there something special about a pawn on the path to promotion that makes it vulnerable to a blunder? Do you remember seeing these blunders at the just concluded Olympiad?

• Caruana Blunders Pawn Ready To Promote
• Chess Legends Make Blunders Too
• Two Blunders Result In A Draw
• Blundering Against Gukesh Can Be Fatal
• Blundering A Passed Pawn
• Pawn Advances After Opponent’s Blunder

45th Chess Olympiad In Budapest

The Chess Olympiad is a huge team event held for national federations every two years. The 45th Olympiad, held September 11-22 in Budapest, was an 11-round team Swiss tournament played in classical time control. Players had 90 minutes per game, plus 30 minutes from move 40, with a 30-second increment per move. In the Open and Women's sections, teams of five players competed with each match played over four boards.

Caruana Blunders Pawn Ready To Promote

With more than 1,800 players (including more than 200 unrated participants) on the 193 teams in the Open section and 181 teams in the Women’s section, an occasional blunder during the event is expected. But one by GM Fabiano Caruana?

In the 10th round, his game against GM Gukesh Dommaraju was even until Caruana made his 34th move, …Qg6, which swung the evaluation bar 2.2 points in Gukesh’s favor. (A better choice would have been …Ng6.) After Gukesh’s 35th move (made with just 21 seconds on his clock), Rf4, Caruana could not defend his d2-pawn, which Gukesh captured on his 37th move. With an extra pawn and the attack, Gukesh went on to win the game.

Chess Legends Make Blunders Too

Of course, chess legends are not immune/exempt from making a blunder at such a high-profile tournament. In round three, GM Vasyl Ivanchuk once the number-two player in the world, blundered with 11 seconds left on his clock. On his 39th move in his game against GM Bobby Cheng, Ivanchuk grabbed a pawn that let Cheng make a game-winning fork. (Even with the blunder, Ivanchuk played the game with an accuracy of 93.6 percent.)

Two Blunders Result In A Draw

In round seven, GM Jorden van Foreest had a winning position in his game against GM Alexey Sarana and then did what we all fear: he blundered. Before van Foreest made his 30th move, g4, the evaluation bar pointed in his favor by 2.8 points. After the move, Sarana had a 3.3-point advantage, a swing of more than six points. (Van Foreest had three favorable options for this move—Bd5, Rd2, or Bc3—that would have retained the winning position.)

On his 35th move, Sarana returned the favor and blundered with …h6, which swung the evaluation bar back to an even game. The game in which each player had had winning advantage ended in a draw.

Blundering Against Gukesh Can Be Fatal

In a game against GM Gukesh Dommaraju in round eight, GM Parham Maghsoodloo had recovered from his initial slips early in the game, notably his 15th and 18th moves, when the game was even after 27 moves. However, a blunder on his 29th move, Nc4, shifted the evaluation bar in Gukesh’s favor by 4.6 points. The game continued just five more moves when Maghsoodloo resigned—the blunder was too damaging.

Blundering A Passed Pawn

In the same round, IM Vantika Agrawal, one of the stars of India’s gold-medal Women’s team, was cruising to a fifth win in a row when she failed to protect her passed a-pawn, which should have guaranteed her a victory. The pawn was quickly seized by WIM Alicja Sliwicka, who was able to hold on to a draw.

Pawn Advances After Opponent’s Blunder

In a very complex endgame in round nine, GM Leinier Dominguez and GM Sanan Sjugirov were very much even after 40 moves when both players received another 30 minutes. However, on his 41st move, Sjugirov made a blunder that lost the game for him. Dominguez took advantage of the blunder and marched a passed pawn toward promotion.

Is A Forfeit A Blunder?

Finally, is it a blunder to show up late to a tournament and lose by forfeit? For the third round, GM Magnus Carlsen biked to the tournament venue (after giving up on his teammates who were supposed to pick him up but were stuck in traffic) and barely arrived in time to make his first move. If he had arrived four minutes later, he would have lost by forfeit. Forfeiting a game would be as terrible as a blunder; however, he succeeded in checkmating GM Roberto Garcia Pantoja—and later said that he could look back on the near-forfeit as just "a fun story."

The 45th Olympiad in which India scored double gold had more than its share of drama. Blunders were, as expected, a part of the scene. As Savielly Tartakower once remarked: “The blunders are all there on the board, waiting to be made.” (For more amazing details about this Olympiad, see the recap article “14 Things We Learned.”)

What do you think? Did any blunder at this Olympiad surprise you?