Indian Teams Sole Leaders After Ding Defeat Costs China

GM Arjun Erigaisi and India go into the rest day of the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad on perfect scores after Arjun's round-six win over GM Sanan Sjugirov helped India to a 3-1 victory over Hungary. That meant the sole lead as China only drew with Vietnam after GM Liem Le beat World Champion Ding Liren on demand. GMs Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana fell just short in their own must-win games, so that Norway lost to Iran, while the top seeds from the U.S. only drew with Romania. 

India, the only team to have won all of its matches in the Women's 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad, lead after IM Divya Deshmukh scored on board three to defeat Armenia 2.5-1.5. In shared second, a point behind, are Georgia and Poland. Georgia's board four IM Salome Melia won from a losing position to relinquish Mongolia out of the shared lead with a 2.5-1.5 score, while Polish IM Oliwia Kiolbasa on board three brought another 2.5-1.5 victory to hand China its second consecutive defeat.

Round seven of the 2024 FIDE Chess Olympiad starts on Wednesday, September 18, at 9 a.m. ET/15:00 CEST/6:30 p.m. IST.

• Open Section: Arjun, India Keep On Winning As Ding Defeat Hurts China
• Women's Section: India Takes Sole Lead; Georgia, Poland Follow Close Behind

Open Section: Arjun, India Keep On Winning As Ding Defeat Hurts China

China could only draw against Vietnam as India continued its perfect start to the 2024 Chess Olympiad. 

See full results here.

That meant that for the first time a team has broken clear of the pack, though India-China in round seven will give China the chance to get back to pole position—and likely give us all another preview of the Ding vs. GM Gukesh Dommaraju world championship match. 

Four teams were on a perfect 10/10 going into round six, including the second and third seeds, India and China. They would approach their matches the way they had the previous five rounds, which for India meant with total confidence and doing more than required.

Only GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu looked under pressure, but he held a draw without drama against GM Peter Leko. GM Richard Rapport ended Gukesh's winning streak, but that was the end of Hungary's achievements. 

Once again, Arjun was a beast as he made it six wins in six rounds and has moved to 2791.3 on the live rating list—2800 beckons, and it feels the only question is whether he makes it this tournament!

His win over Sjugirov featured a pawn sacrifice in the opening that gained a big advantage on the clock, and his precision in the middlegame and endgame was more than his opponent could handle. That's our Game of the Day, and has been analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao, who writes:

There is a chapter in Kasparov's monumental book The Test of Time in which he analyzes three equal endgames and how he managed to win all three in the same tournament, against (if I'm not mistaken) Larsen, Seirawan, and Petrosian. This game reminded me of that unforgettable chapter in the book, which tells the story of a young chess player's rise to the title of world champion and how important it is to master the technical part of the game. 

The icing on the cake was an equally convincing win for GM Vidit Gujrathi, whose 5/6 could easily have been 5.5/6 if he'd found a win against GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov the day before. 

Vidit completes a fine win that gives India a 3-1 win over Hungary and the sole lead on 12/12 going into the #ChessOlympiad rest day! pic.twitter.com/ERfbJED9zS

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 16, 2024

He was understandably proud of his play. 

Vidit on beating Gledura to help India to a 3-1 win over Hungary: "Today I think I played a really good game! I got small pressure from the opening, then I put pressure, and eventually he collapsed." #ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/r6qdZzq0SF

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 16, 2024

China, meanwhile, had won the previous two rounds with three draws and a single win, and it looked as though they would repeat that pattern when GM Wang Yue, the first Chinese player ever to cross 2700 (in 2008) and to enter the top-10 (2010), confidently moved to 4/4.

If Ding had made a draw the match would be won for China... but he didn't!

It would be hard to call Le beating Ding a major upset, considering the Vietnamese number-one entered the event five points higher-rated, but the pawn-down position reached felt like the kind of position the world champion would have held with ease back in 2018 when he was at his absolute best and known for tenacious defense.

In 2024, Ding soon stumbled into a position the tablebases announced as lost, and when briefly given a reprieve he didn't take it and slipped to defeat.

Ding Liren resigns vs. Liem Le and drops out of the Top 20 — Vietnam takes a match point off China!https://t.co/UMboL9zTRx #ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/0Jqk5YD7rF

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 16, 2024

Le described the win as one of the biggest of his life, while also revealing that he's using his time in Budapest to recruit students for the chess program he runs at Webster University in St. Louis. 

Liem Le on beating Ding Liren: "It's one of the biggest [wins of my life], for sure. It's nice to beat the World Champion and this is also very important for the team result — we got 2-2 against China, one of the contenders for the gold medal!" #ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/UX0PYhxKPp

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 16, 2024

That meant both Vietnam and China are on 11/12, a point behind India, where they're joined by 10th seed Iran, who took down Norway. GM Pouya Idani pounced on a blunder by GM Frode Urkedal to score the crucial point. That left world number-one Carlsen needing to beat GM Parham Maghsoodloo on demand to rescue a draw.

Carlsen had a big space advantage in a Caro-Kann and it felt like the kind of position he would convert with ease, but instead Maghsoodloo's dynamic counterplay equalized the position, although Carlsen played on until move 87.

Parham Maghsoodloo holds a draw vs. Magnus Carlsen and Iran defeats Norway! https://t.co/ksyqCCC43G #ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/KaCf4aAD6I

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 16, 2024

Almost the last game to finish in the open section featured the world number-two, Caruana, who, after three draws in United States vs. Romania, needed to beat GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac to maintain his 100% score and give his team victory. He fought on to move 125, but in vain.

That meant the top-seeded side can now score a maximum of 19 match points, which historically means that only winning their remaining five matches will give a decent chance of taking gold! 

Here are the winning scores since the Olympiad was played over 11 rounds (in 2020 no over-the-board Olympiad was held because of the pandemic).

Things are getting serious, and slip-ups can be costly. In round six we saw tough blows for a number of traditionally strong Olympiad teams. Azerbaijan slumped to a second loss in a row, against Lithuania, Spain were beaten by Georgia, and Poland were held to a draw by Austria when GM Valentin Dragnev spotted a stunning blow against GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda and rescued what had seemed a hopeless position. 

Valentin Dragnev's queen sac against Jan-Krzysztof Duda was perhaps the move of the 2024 #ChessOlympiad so far! pic.twitter.com/tDczqw9TQk

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 16, 2024

So far everything is going India's way, but that could still change fast. China has the chance to leapfrog their rivals with a win in round seven, while a winner of Iran-Vietnam would also tie for the lead unless India wins. 

2024 Chess Olympiad Round 7 Team Pairings: Open (Top 15)

First, however, there's the Bermuda Party and a well-deserved rest day!  

Women's Section: India Take Sole Lead; Georgia, Poland Follow Close Behind

The margins of victory get tighter as the top teams face their closest rivals. The three most critical matches at the top of the Women's table were decided by a win on a single board in each case. 

See full results here.

Though GM Harika Dronavalli had chances in a bishop vs. knight endgame on board one and IM Tania Sachdev was winning on board four, Divya's sole victory was enough to secure the match for India against Armenia.

Divya's game was promising early on after an opening mishap, starting with GM Elina Danielian's 15...Na5?, which left Black severely underdeveloped.

Second-seed Georgia faced Mongolia, the third team on a perfect score going into this round. With quiet draws on the other three boards, Melia brought Georgia the one win they needed. It was likely the most unexpected victory of the day, at least when WFM Erdenebayar Khuslen found the tactic to win an exchange for absolutely nothing in return.

The game isn't over until the scoresheets are signed, however, and Melia pounced on the opportunity to single-handedly alter her country's fate in this tournament.

China seemed invincible after the first four rounds, as they had won 15 games and drawn just one by that point. Armenia defeated them in round five, and in this round they replaced 14-year-old prodigy IM Lu Miaoyi with IM Guo Qi on board three.  Early in the day, GM Robert Hess pointed out that there was no big difference in the players' ratings and this was "a match that is as 50-50 as it gets."

Chinese GM Zhu Jiner managed to neutralize a fleeting opening advantage that IM Alina Kashlinskaya achieved on board one, and it was Kiolbasa who made the most of two bishops to seize match victory for Poland. 

That's two losses in a row for China, essentially leaving them out of contention for the gold medal, while Poland jumps into shared second place with Georgia—behind the so far dominant Indian team. There are seven teams on 10 points behind them.

Of the closest matches, the other two were Azerbaijan vs. Vietnam (2.5-1.5) and the U.S. vs. Switzerland (2.5-1.5). IM Ulviyya Fataliyeva played an important role for Azerbaijan as she won a one-sided game almost straight out of the opening.

IM Ulviyya Fataliyeva, playing for Azerbaijan, looks to already be winning on move 16! Rad1 next and Black will struggle to find safe squares for her pieces.https://t.co/tWKyzYlgaP#ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/BFQMLvBYBx

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 16, 2024

The U.S., on the other hand, looked to be in trouble when WFM Mariya Manko won a demoralizingly one-sided game against IM Anna Zatonskih on board four. However, IMs Carissa Yip and Alice Lee saved the day with wins on boards two and three, while IM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova critically made a draw with the white pieces against the "Chess Queen" herself, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk.

Yip, who just celebrated her 21st birthday six days ago, spoke with FM Mike Klein after her win and said that she never felt too worried for her team—despite what eval bars were telling spectators during the match. She also mentioned that she borrowed the odd-looking 5...h6 from a game where she was White against Georgian GM Nana Dzagnidze, at the 2021 Women's World Cup.

Objectively, her opponent managed to get an advantage, but spent so much time doing so that she started to go terribly wrong with under 10 minutes against Yip's nearly 50.

The most important match after the rest day, of course, will be the pairing between first-seed India and second-seed Georgia. Will India continue cruising ahead or will Georgia finally end India's six-match unbeaten streak? We'll have to wait till Wednesday to know!

2024 Chess Olympiad Round 7 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 5: Arjun Hits 5/5 As India Powers On; Armenian Women Topple China
• Round 4: Ivanchuk Beats So As Ukraine Topples Olympiad Top-Seed United States
• Round 3: Carlsen Bikes To Win As Giri, Keymer Suffer Shock Defeats
• 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