Carlsen Bikes To Win As Giri, Keymer Suffer Shock Defeats

GM Magnus Carlsen's first visit to the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad won't be forgotten in a hurry after he turned up late, on a bike, thinking he'd lost by default, but was smuggled in just in time to go on to win by checkmate. GM Fabiano Caruana moved up to world number-two as U.S.A. marched on, but 2700-stars GMs Anish Giri and Vincent Keymer both lost as the Netherlands and Germany sank to losses against Italy and Lithuania.    

In the Women's 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad, several teams held favorites to draws on the top 10 boards: Romania, Greece, Argentina, and Slovenia respectively held Georgia, Poland, Azerbaijan, and Germany. Uzbekistan narrowly scored the first upset victory against Hungary with a 2.5-1.5 score.

Round four of the 2024 FIDE Chess Olympiad starts on Saturday, September 14 at 9 a.m. ET/15:00 CEST/6:30 p.m. IST.

• Open Section: Storm On And Off The Board As First Favorites Fall
• Women's Section: Romania, Greece, Argentina, Slovenia Hold Draws And Uzbekistan Upsets Hungary

Open Section: Storm On And Off The Board As First Favorites Fall

For the first time the upsets in the Open section were favorites losing rather than just drawing their matches, as the Netherlands and Germany were put to the sword.

See full results here.

Central Europe is braced for floods this weekend, and rainfall in Budapest on Friday made getting to the venue a challenge for all the teams.

#ChessOlympiad Day 3.@FIDE_chess should provided an official transfer from the hotel @RadissonBlu to the playing hall, but smth went wrong and the 🇺🇦 player @EvgeniyaDoluhan trying to catch a taxi pic.twitter.com/1FPgNg34Cu

— Natalia Zhukova (@Natalichess) September 13, 2024

The most dramatic entrance, however, was made by none other than the world number-one, Carlsen, who ultimately made it to his game, by bike, with just four minutes to spare—after that he would have lost by default. 

And he won the game - just Magnus Carlsen things! pic.twitter.com/vcHfYEztFv

— Chess.com (@chesscom) September 13, 2024

He thought he'd turned up to the venue too late, but the start of all the games had been delayed 15 minutes due to the weather conditions, and WFM Maria Emelianova showed him a way in despite his lack of a badge. 

World no. 1 @MagnusCarlsen arrived on a bike in the rain & thought he'd lost his game by forfeit when he couldn't find the entrance to the venue & had no badge — but @photochess managed to smuggle him in just in time!#ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/CCjvNTGPbP

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 13, 2024

After a smooth win against GM Roberto Garcia Pantoja that ended in checkmate—and a 3.5-0.5 win for Norway against Colombia—he could look back on it all as just "a fun story."

Carlsen explained he's staying at a different hotel from his teammates and was meant to be picked up by them on the way, but when they got stuck in traffic he saw no hope but to make his own way there. It turns out there are some things he's not so good at!  

Magnus: "Ok, I'm going to try & jump on a bike. The problem is, I had no idea where to go, so I was trying to bike as fast as I could & navigate at the same time, but I'm not very good at navigating... that's the thing I should work on the most!"#ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/yiONVwU5fi

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 13, 2024

While Norway scored a good bounce-back win after being held to a draw the day before, the top teams powered on, with India dropping its first half point (a draw for GM Vidit Gujrathi) but beating Hungary B 3.5-0.5 with wins for the fearsome trio of GMs Gukesh Dommaraju, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, and Arjun Erigaisi.

Arjun's win against GM Peter Prohaszka featured a sparkling finish, with a queen sac and checkmate! 

That saw India take the sole lead on tiebreaks for the first time, though 16 teams still have a perfect 6/6 match points.

U.S.A., as you can see, are just a fraction behind, and in round three they really kicked into gear, with fine wins for GMs Wesley So (vs. GM Arkadij Naiditsch, now representing Bulgaria, after previously playing for Germany and Azerbaijan), and Levon Aronian.

Caruana's long grind against GM Ivan Cheparinov was the icing on the cake, with the decisive breakthrough only coming with 68...d5!, when both players were playing on the 30 seconds added each move. 

That result meant that Caruana is now back up to world number-two, a smidgen above Nakamura.

Uzbekistan and China were among the other top seeds to win easily, even if GM Ding Liren was again held to a draw, this time by GM Vladimir Fedoseev, but just below them we saw our first big upsets.

Everything looked to be going right for fifth seed the Netherlands when GM Jorden van Foreest got a winning position in around a dozen moves before duly converting, but on the remaining three boards against Italy everything went off the rails.

The headline result was Italian GM Lorenzo Lodici's win over Giri, which has been analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao below.

That wasn't the only shock, as sixth seed Germany fell, in an even more painful fashion. 

Again the star player lost, with GM Titas Stremavicius taking down high-flying 19-year-old Keymer. One move, 30...c4?, on which the young German spent almost all his remaining seven minutes, proved very costly.

What made the match heartbreaking, however, was that GM Alexander Donchenko spent hours trying to convert a winning position against GM Valery Kazakouski only to stumble at the end in a tricky endgame and lose the game and match.

There were more upsets further down the field. 36th seed Montenegro defeated 14th seed France when GM Nikita Petrov won the only decisive game by checkmating GM Marc'Andria Maurizzi.

It was the same story for 40th seed Sweden against 18th seed Romania after a brilliant win for GM Erik Blomqvist over GM Kirill Shevchenko.

50th seed Canada looked unlikely to continue its heroics after GM Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux, who won the crucial 103-move game against Norway the day before, was put to the sword in 27 moves by GM David Navara,  but wins on the bottom boards produced a 2.5-1.5 win over the 19th-seeded Czech Republic.
  

Round four promises to see more mayhem, and we may get to see Caruana take on chess legend GM Vasyl Ivanchuk of Ukraine, whose one-move blunder of a piece didn't stop Ukraine beating Australia to retain a 100 percent record.

2024 Chess Olympiad Round 4 Team Pairings: Open (Top 15)

Women's Section: Romania, Greece, Argentina, Slovenia Hold Draws And Uzbekistan Upsets Hungary

After three rounds, India, China, and Ukraine are the last teams from the top five to have won all of their matches. The 34th seed Uzbekistan (average rating 2176) earned the match upset against 14th seed Hungary (2320) by the narrowest of margins. Like in the Open, 16 teams remain on a perfect 6/6 score.

See full results here.

Although GM Alexandra Kosteniuk defeated GM Harika Dronavalli on the top board of Switzerland vs. India, the three other clashes ended in India's favor. On board two, GM Vaishali Rameshbabu traded into a same-color bishop endgame that she knew was winning despite the material parity. All of the black pawns were on light squares, and the white king's superior activity stretched the black defense until it cracked.

The next two highest-rated teams were also held to draws. In Georgia (second seed) vs. Romania (22nd), all four battles ended with white wins. The most tragic result, by far, was on board four where GM Bela Khotenashvili (2432), playing with under a minute, blundered a picturesque checkmate against WIM Alessia-Mihaela Ciolacu (2160). After grabbing a knight on e2, she succumbed to an unexpected iteration of the ladder checkmate.

A big upset on board four of Romania vs. Georgia after Khotenashvili misses a beautiful checkmate!https://t.co/q0MzWpwSi0#ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/LlFAWYjPtv

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 13, 2024

As far as colorful checkmates go, there were at least two others. In that India vs. Switzerland matchup, IM Divya Deshmukh found a nice pawn-checkmate, complimenting GM Benjamin Gledura's fantastic king-hunt in the Open.

Not too long after, commentator and IM Jovanka Houska found the explosive 46.Bxf6! to force resignation, on board two of England vs. Norway, which England won with a 4-0 sweep. If the bishop's taken, 47.Qd4 is checkmate.

Greece (23rd seed) also pulled off the draw against Poland (third seed). With draws on the top two boards, it was WIM Ekaterini Pavlidou (2141) who delivered the needed point in a heavy-piece endgame against IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya (2404). With 3/3 wins, Pavlidou is set to gain 22.4 rating points, so far.

The fatal blunder came on move 42, after the players received 30 more minutes. 42...Re5?? allowed an artistic-looking (though temporary) queen sacrifice and there was nothing Black could do to stop the royal procession of the pawn to the eighth rank.

The notable upset of the round was Uzbekistan's against the home team of Hungary. There was a draw on board four, a sudden end on board three after a blunder by the Hungarian player and a fascinating rook endgame on board one, which Uzbek WIM Afruza Khamdamova converted against WIM Zsoka Gaal. Every endgame is a potential pawn endgame, and White had to avoid the rook trade at all costs with 33.Rh4!. Instead, White played 33.h4?? after nine seconds and soon realized there was no way to save it.

GM Hoang Thanh Trang won an exciting game from the black side of the Dutch Leningrad on board two, but it wasn't enough to salvage her team. That game, featuring a great counterattack, is certainly worth checking out for readers who desire "extra homework."

On Saturday, India (average rating 2467) will face France (2355), a team that boasts three international masters. China (2462) will face England (2297), which has two IMs and two WGMs on its team. The opposition gets tougher with every passing round.

2024 Chess Olympiad Round 4 Team Pairings: Women (Top 15)

NM Anthony Levin contributed reporting to this article.

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:

• Round 2: Caruana Back In 2800 Club; Canada Hold Carlsen-less Norway To Draw
• Round 1: Aronian, Mamedyarov, Arjun Live Dangerously As Top Teams Win
• 2024 FIDE Chess Olympiad: 7 Talking Points
• U.S. Top Seeds, India Close 2nd As Chess Olympiad Teams Announced