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India On Brink Of 1st-Ever Olympiad Gold After Defeating United States
Indian captain Srinath Narayanan and Gukesh Dommaraju are elated as India beats the U.S. team. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

India On Brink Of 1st-Ever Olympiad Gold After Defeating United States

Colin_McGourty
Colin_McGourty
Staff
| 129 | Chess Event Coverage

India is on the brink of winning gold after beating the United States 2.5-1.5 in round 10 of the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad. Just as in Chennai, GM Gukesh Dommaraju defeated GM Fabiano Caruana while GM Arjun Erigaisi took down GM Leinier Dominguez. The only other team that still has a mathematical chance of winning the title is China, who trail by two points after overcoming Uzbekistan despite GM Ding Liren spoiling a winning position against GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov. 

The Women's 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad will be a last-round thriller as India and Kazakhstan are now tied for first. IM Divya Deshmukh got the clutch win as India defeated China, while 17-year-old WIM Alua Nurman was again the hero as she held a draw against GM Bella Khotenashvili that saved Kazakhstan against Georgia. The U.S. and Polish teams are just one point behind and also in the hunt for gold. 

The start of the crucial India-U.S. match. Photo: Mark Livshitz/FIDE.

The final round of the 2024 FIDE Chess Olympiad starts four hours earlier on Sunday, September 22, at 5 a.m. ET/11:00 CEST/2:30 p.m. IST.

Open Section: Gukesh, Arjun Put India On Verge Of Olympiad Glory

All 10 of the top matches in the penultimate round hinged on a single game, with India and China winning the key showdowns.  

See full games and results here.

The penultimate round would have made a fitting final round, since it saw the top-seeded U.S. team face off against second-seed India. The United States had to win to catch India, but in the end Gukesh and company continued their almost total dominance of the 2024 Chess Olympiad.

It wasn't that the United States had nothing to cheer about, since GM Wesley So scored a convincing win over GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, inflicting India's only individual defeat of the tournament. 

By that stage, however, the writing was on the wall, and So lamented his own mistake against GM Vasyl Ivanchuk that had cost defeat against Ukraine: "One blunder and then you have to wait two years for a gold medal!"

The soft-spoken American this time used an expletive to describe his own play and expressed the belief that if GM Hikaru Nakamura had been on the team they would have taken gold.

The reason for the post-mortem was the dire situation on the remaining boards, where Gukesh and Arjun continued their Olympiad rampage.

Only Gukesh has outperformed his teammate Arjun.

It was all a repeat of Chennai, as Gukesh defeated Caruana for a second Olympiad in a row. He was lower on time than his opponent, but spotted a blunder and punished it with 21 seconds on his clock. After that, the world championship challenger never looked back, as he converted with ease.

That's our Game of the Day, which GM Rafael Leitao has analyzed below.  

That left two games, but while GM Levon Aronian did everything he could to complicate his game against GM Vidit Gujrathi, it was ultimately in vain.

Aronian has nothing better than a draw against Vidit. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

A draw meant that all eyes turned to Arjun, who for the second Olympiad in a row played exactly one 2700+ player, Dominguez.

Arjun has been an absolute beast in Budapest. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Both times Arjun won, with the 2024 victory coming in a game where Dominguez sacrificed an exchange for some compensation, which gradually faded away. 30.e4! was the moment it was clear Arjun was on the right track, and despite a slight wobble later, the outcome never felt in doubt.

Congratulations poured in for the Indian team and their captain, but it's not quite decided yet.

It would have been decided if we'd had a draw in the other huge clash of the day, third-seed China vs. fourth-seed and defending champion Uzbekistan. Instead, it was China who sneaked victory in an absolutely wild match.

The one draw could easily have been the most memorable game of the match, since high-flying GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov completely misplayed the opening against World Champion Ding Liren, who looked as though he'd finally grab an important win for his team.

Ding can't put the ball in the back of the net. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Alas, it wasn't to be, since he carelessly blundered his passed pawn and the game was rapidly drawn.

28...Rc8! was winning, preparing Rc6 and Rxb6, but 28...Na4?? lost the pawn to a simple rook maneuver.

After two misses on two consecutive days, Ding still hasn't won a classical game since Wijk aan Zee in January—though if there's one sliver of hope, it's that he's still creating such chances against 2700 opposition.

The other good news for Ding is that he has wonderful teammates who will fight to make any slips irrelevant.

Ding's miss didn't prove costly on this occasion as China won two of the remaining three boards. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Although GM Wang Yue lost a topsy-turvy game to GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov, the match was won for China on the remaining two boards. GM Yu Yangyi exploited GM Javokhir Sindarov for placing his king on the wrong square where it lost a tempo to a check, while GM Wei Yi went for a brilliant attack and, even when he couldn't find a killer blow, managed to win in the endgame. True, there were one or two shaky moments, including 44.Qd4?.

None of the other matches impacted the battle for first place, though there was plenty to enjoy and admire.

Magnus Carlsen doesn't play the final round and bows out with a 2810 rating performance. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

GM Magnus Carlsen bounced back with a win over GM Ivan Schitco, GMs Anton Korobov and David Anton found sparkling tactics to beat GMs Gabriel Sargissian and Liem Le, and Turkish prodigies 13-year-old Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus and 15-year-old Ediz Gurel once again impressed in Turkiye's 2-2 draw with Poland.

Ediz Gurel is currently leading Wei Yi in the race for the gold medal on board two.

Perhaps the most surprising outcome at this stage of the Olympiad is that 26th-seed Slovenia is in sole third place after defeating the Netherlands, with a single win for GM Matej Sebenik over GM Benjamin Bok.  

Slovenia can guarantee themselves a podium finish, but it requires the small task of doing what no one else has managed at this Olympiad—beating India! If they do (by a large margin) and China defeats the United States by a similarly convincing scoreline, then China could still take gold on tiebreaks, but India is a huge favorite. Here are the final pairings. 

2024 Chess Olympiad Round 11 Team Pairings: Open (Top 15)

No. SNo FED Team MP : MP Team FED SNo
1 26 Slovenia 16 : 19 India 2
2 13 Spain 15 : 15 Hungary 9
3 3 China 17 : 15 United States of America 1
4 4 Uzbekistan 15 : 15 France 14
5 16 Serbia 15 : 15 Ukraine 15
6 17 Armenia 15 : 14 Iran 10
7 24 Bulgaria 14 : 14 Germany 7
8 32 Georgia 14 : 14 Poland 11
9 39 Brazil 14 : 14 Azerbaijan 12
10 18 Romania 14 : 14 Moldova 34
11 41 Kazakhstan 14 : 14 Turkiye 22
12 47 Chile 14 : 14 Greece 23
13 5 Netherlands 13 : 13 Lithuania 29
14 28 Italy 13 : 13 Norway 6
15 8 England 13 : 13 Slovakia 43

Women's Section: India, Kazakhstan Tied Before Final Round

If the Open section is set to be a coronation, the Women's is anything but. As in the Open, the penultimate round matches at the top were incredibly close, but they also left four teams—India, Kazakhstan, Poland, and the United States—with a chance of gold.

See full results here.

India had lost and then drawn a match after starting with seven wins, but they fought back to end the campaign of China, who was looking to make it four match wins in a row. 

Divya Deshmukh gave India an important win. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

The hero was 18-year-old Deshmukh, who during the Olympiad has become the highest-rated player on the Indian women's team. She attacked WGM Ni Shiqun from the early middlegame and got to convert in style, with 39.Rxe6! a crushing final move. 

Divya felt the team had handled their setbacks well.

That win could easily have seen India take the sole lead before the final round, but Kazakhstan escaped with a draw when, after three draws, WIM Alua Nurman was this time a hero for making a draw from what was an objectively lost position against GM Bella Khotenashvili.    

Alua Nurman kept Kazakhstan in the lead, now joined by India. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Khotenashvili correctly saw she needed to sacrifice a piece to break down her opponent's fortress and give Georgia a crucial win, but she couldn't quite find the right moment.

Alua Nurman survives and the dream of gold is very much alive for Kazakhstan.

That leaves India fractionally ahead on tiebreaks, but there are two more teams just a point behind and very much still in contention. 

The United States defeated Ukraine with 21-year-old IM Carissa Yip moving to a spectacular 9/10 and a performance that would be enough for a GM norm if not for the fact she hasn't played the required three grandmasters.

The United States will have a huge say in the final standings as it now takes on Kazakhstan, while India faces Azerbaijan. The other contender for the top medal is Poland, who inflicted the first loss of the Olympiad on the German women's team. Poland now takes on Georgia.

Oliwia Kiolbasa grabbed the one win in Poland vs. Germany. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

2024 Chess Olympiad Round 11 Team Pairings: Women (Top 15)

No. SNo FED Team MP : MP Team FED SNo
1 10 Kazakhstan 17 : 16 United States of America 7
2 14 Hungary 15 : 15 Spain 9
3 1 India 17 : 15 Azerbaijan 6
4 3 Poland 16 : 15 Georgia 2
5 11 Armenia 15 : 14 Germany 8
6 4 China 14 : 14 Vietnam 20
7 5 Ukraine 14 : 14 Romania 22
8 24 Italy 14 : 14 Bulgaria 12
9 16 Turkiye 14 : 14 Uzbekistan 34
10 19 Serbia 14 : 14 Argentina 26
11 30 Austria 13 : 13 France 13
12 32 Slovakia 13 : 13 Netherlands 17
13 18 Mongolia 13 : 13 Sweden 33
14 35 Norway 13 : 13 Switzerland 21
15 39 Peru 13 : 13 Greece 23

One storyline had a tough conclusion. WFM Eman Sawan from Palestine needed one more win to take a place in chess history.

Sawan was within touching distance of individual gold after she caught her opponent in a trap.

Alas, she later stumbled into a draw and, while 7.5/8 is still a fantastic score, her rating performance plummeted from over 2600 to 2268. GM Zhu Jiner (China) and IM Alina Kashlinskaya (Poland) are now battling for gold.

Don't miss the last round of the Olympiad, which starts four hours earlier than we're used to! 

How to watch?

You can watch our live broadcast on the chess24 YouTube and Twitch channels, while GM Hikaru Nakamura will also be streaming on his Twitch and Kick channels. The games can also be checked out on our dedicated 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad events page. 

The live broadcast was hosted by GM Robert Hess, GM Daniel Naroditsky, and John Sargent.

The 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad is a massive team event for national federations that takes place every two years. In 2024 it's being held in Budapest, Hungary, with 11 rounds that run September 11-22. In Open and Women's sections, teams of five players compete in a Swiss Open, with each match played over four boards. There are two match points for a win and one for a draw, with board points taken into account only if teams are tied. Players have 90 minutes per game, plus 30 minutes from move 40, with a 30-second increment per move.

Previous Coverage:

Colin_McGourty
Colin McGourty

Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.

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