14 Things We Learned — 2024 Chess Olympiad

India is the future of chess and the future is now. That's one summary of the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad, which saw GM Gukesh Dommaraju, GM Arjun Erigaisi, IM Divya Deshmukh, and IM Vantika Agrawal claim team and individual gold as India dominated the event. Let's take a look at some of the things we've learned.

1. India Win It All—The Disciples Of Vishy Have Taken Over
2. The Age Of European Dominance Has Passed
3. Gukesh vs. Ding Threatens To Be A Walkover
4. Arjun, Now World Number-3, Can’t Stop Climbing
5. U.S. And Uzbekistan Struggled But Still Took Medals
6. The Dark Horses Couldn’t Break Onto The Podium
7. The Turkish Kids Are The Real Deal
8. India’s Women’s Team Avoided A Repeat Of Chennai
9. Kazakhstan Are Here To Stay 
10. The U.S. Women’s Team Future Is Bright With Yip And Lee
11. Spain Show It’s Not All About Youth
12. The Anti-Cheating Delay Is A Spoiler
13. Off-The-Board Drama Didn’t Overshadow The Chess
14. We’ve Got Two Years To Wait Until Tashkent 2026

1. India Win It All—The Disciples Of Vishy Have Taken Over

We asked in our Olympiad preview, “Has India’s Time Come?” and the simple answer is “Yes!” It’s hard to overstate how totally India dominated the 2024 Budapest Olympiad. The Open team won 10 matches and tied one to score 21/22 match points, beating the previous high of 20 by the U.S. and Ukraine in 2016, and finished a gaping four points clear of the “chasing pack.” The Women’s team suffered some setbacks, but also finished clear first, on 19/21, with no need for tiebreaks.

India team spirit! Celebration time! Olympiad Champions!

🇮🇳🥇🏆🥇🏆🇮🇳#BudapestOlympiad #FIDE100 @FIDE_chess @aicfchess @WOMChess pic.twitter.com/jzJXBzQOs1

— Susan Polgar (@SusanPolgar) September 22, 2024

It was historic, since those were the first over-the-board Olympiad gold medals for the Indian teams, while China in 2018 is the only team other than India to achieve double gold since the break-up of the Soviet Union. Add in four individual gold medals, and it was about as close to perfection as it’s possible for a team to get.

It’s only 10 years since India achieved its first Olympiad medal, a surprise bronze for the Open team in Tromso, Norway in 2014, but the current success could be seen coming. In Chennai, India in 2022, both teams were disappointed with bronze medals, though that was enough to win India the Gaprindashvili Cup for the combined Open and Women’s results. Needless to say, they won that Cup in 2024 as well.

If one person is behind the current success, it’s 15th World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand, who at times during his reign was criticized for not doing enough to promote chess. Little did the critics realize that he was about to inspire a wave of incredible chess talent. Last year, GM Hikaru Nakamura talked about the “disciples of Vishy” coming for world number-one GM Magnus Carlsen…     

Nakamura on Carlsen: "This is the future for him. The Indians are coming for him. It's going to be one Indian after another, after another, after another, after another—all the disciples of Vishy!"#QatarMasters2023 pic.twitter.com/cKTFoHgKXl

— chess24 (@chess24com) October 18, 2023

…and after the victory in Budapest he praised Anand again.

It is truly unfathomable how this kid would come from a country with no chess culture and not only become World Champion, but inspire generations of Indian kids to push chess forward. The legend, @vishy64theking! Huge congratulations to India for winning the @ChessOlympiad! pic.twitter.com/zpLbekK1mu

— Hikaru Nakamura (@GMHikaru) September 21, 2024

The Indian chess players have the world at their feet, and recognition and support most chess players could only dream of.  

Historic win for India as our chess contingent wins the 45th #FIDE Chess Olympiad! India has won the Gold in both open and women’s category at Chess Olympiad! Congratulations to our incredible Men's and Women's Chess Teams. This remarkable achievement marks a new chapter in… pic.twitter.com/FUYHfK2Jtu

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 22, 2024

2. The Age Of European Dominance Has Passed

It’s notable, meanwhile, that for the first time in Chess Olympiad history no European team made the podium of either the Open or Women’s Chess Olympiads. Asian chess powerhouses India, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan were joined by the United States. There are fine margins, and some possible explanations, but it also feels symbolic of a shift in chess geography. 

3. Gukesh vs. Ding Threatens To Be A Walkover

Going into the Olympiad one storyline was the world championship match that starts in Singapore on November 25. How would Challenger Gukesh and World Champion Ding Liren perform in what were likely their last classical games before the match? The contrast couldn't have been more dramatic.

Gukesh was a phenomenon, taking individual gold on board one with the tournament’s best rating performance of 3056, gaining him 30.1 rating points.

In part, Gukesh explained he was trying to make up for the 2022 Chess Olympiad where he lost the key game to GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov.

"I had a personal debt to pay back. I think I could say last time we didn’t win gold because of my mistake, and now I think I proved that that was just an accident and I’m capable of more."  

I had a personal debt to pay back.

—Gukesh Dommaraju

Just for the record, Gukesh also won individual gold on board one in 2022, after starting with 8/8!

And then we have Ding. “We both are strong players and we belong at the top—no point in making predictions right now,” said Gukesh, but it’s a long time (in glimpses during the match) since we saw Ding at his best. In his previous Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia in 2018, he’d been the one to win team gold and individual gold on board one, but this time he made a pale impression.

Seven draws and one loss isn’t a disaster on top board, facing strong opposition, but we saw all the warning signs we’ve seen earlier this year. Ding crumbled in a long game against GM Liem Le (costing his team a point), and missed wins against GM Parham Maghsoodloo and Abdusattorov when he rushed at the critical moments. His mood was suggested by a 10-move draw with White against GM Fabiano Caruana in the final round, which saw his team lose to the U.S. and miss out on the (main) podium.

Perhaps most damning of all was sitting out what would have been the all-important round-seven clash with Gukesh. The decision may well have been the team captain’s instead of Ding’s himself, but either way it promises nothing good for the upcoming match. He’s currently set to go into that encounter 66 rating points behind his opponent and without having won a classical game in 303 days (since beating GM Max Warmerdam in Wijk aan Zee on January 27).    

4. Arjun, Now World Number-3, Can’t Stop Climbing

The only competition for Gukesh came from his teammate, Arjun, who obliterated the field (10/11), moved up to world number-three, and put himself on the brink of 2800 on 2797.2.

Also modest, he recalled that things could have got off on the wrong foot!

"I actually had a shaky start. In the very first round I went for an extremely dubious sacrifice and I didn’t know how I would follow up after that, but starting from game two, and especially three, my games were very smooth and clinical, most of them. I’m happy with the quality. It actually reminds me of the 2022 Olympiad in Chennai, where I crossed 2700 for the first time, and now I’m close to 2800."

My games were very smooth and clinical.

—Arjun Erigaisi

Don’t bet on Arjun taking long to cross that threshold.

5. U.S. And Uzbekistan Struggled But Still Took Medals

For the first time since 2014 (when China scored 19 and four teams trailed on 17 points), 17 points was enough to earn silver, and that’s why the pre-tournament favorite, the United States, could have mixed emotions. Only GM Levon Aronian avoided losing rating (Caruana started with 4/4 but then didn’t win a game), the team lost to Ukraine and India, and drew with Romania, but victory over China due to GM Wesley So’s last-round win meant there was plenty to celebrate.

It was a similar story for the defending champions, Uzbekistan, who lost two matches compared to zero in 2022. They could boast of being the only team to hold India to a draw and having the second-best player on board one, Abdusattorov (a 2884 performance), though their real hero was GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov, who edged out Aronian for gold on board four and snatched the crucial win in the final round against France.

The only question is whether bronze will be enough for the team to be gifted new cars, as they were for winning the 2022 Olympiad in Chennai and also for winning the Under 16 Olympiad before that!

6. The Dark Horses Couldn’t Break Onto The Podium

Uzbekistan team captain GM Vladimir Kramnik later posted the population of the top countries, though he stopped with India (1,451,000,000), USA (342,000,000), Uzbekistan (36,362,005), and China (1,419,000,000). It was pointed out in the comments that the next two countries, who shared 17 points but missed out on medals, were Serbia (~6,500,000) and Armenia (~3,000,000).

While the top-four seeds took the top-four spots, Serbia were 16th seed and Armenia 17th.

See full standings here. 

Serbia has been boosted by the recruitment of former Russian players GMs Alexandr Predke and Alexey Sarana, while Armenia were just doing Armenian things—if the three-time Olympiad champions didn’t over-perform it would be a shock! 

The biggest over-performer was perhaps 26th-seed Slovenia, with GM Vladimir Fedoseev’s win over Carlsen, and a five-match winning streak, taking them into sole third place before the final round. A draw would seemingly have suited both teams, but their opponents, India, were in no mood to show mercy!  

7. The Turkish Kids Are The Real Deal

India was the only unbeaten team in the Open section, while the two teams that lost only one match were surprisingly Georgia and Turkiye, who finished lower down the order since they also made four draws.

The Turkish team was remarkable since it featured two very young and talented GMs, 15-year-old Ediz Gurel and 13-year-old Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus. Gurel started with 7.5/8 and a performance rating north of 2800, and though he slowed down a bit with draws in the final rounds he still took individual bronze on board two. 

Erdogmus lost a couple of games in a row mid-tournament, but his 8/11 and 2636 performance rating was enough to mean that his official FIDE classical rating on October 1 will be 2601.

That will make him the first 13-year-old ever to be rated over 2600, while GMs John M Burke, Wei Yi, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Abhimanyu Mishra, Nihal Sarin, and Wesley So (in order of how young they were) achieved that feat at 14.

8. India’s Women’s Team Avoided A Repeat Of Chennai

The Olympiad was much more of a battle for the Indian Women’s team, since after winning the first seven matches, just as they did in 2022, they hit turbulence. Once again they lost to Poland, and once again they seemed set to lose to the United States, their other conqueror in 2022. This time, however, they snatched a draw, and that seemed to make all the difference. All that was left was to avoid the last-round defeat of 2022, as they did with a crushing 3.5-0.5 victory over Azerbaijan.

The biggest team heroes were the youngest players, 21-year-old Vantika (7.5/9 and individual gold on board four) and 18-year-old Divya (9.5/11 and individual gold on board three). Divya’s stunning run took her above 2500 for the first time, and made her the top Indian women’s player apart from GM Humpy Koneru, who didn’t play in Budapest.

9. Kazakhstan Are Here To Stay 

Kazakhstan’s silver bodes extremely well for their future, since they were missing 27-year-old IM Dinara Saduakassova and 24-year-old GM Zhansaya Abdumalik, but won their medal with 20-year-old IM Bibisara Assaubayeva and four teenagers. Three of them are already storming up the list of top female juniors.

10. The U.S. Women’s Team Future Is Bright With Yip And Lee

The Women’s Olympiad was (almost) all about youth, with 14-year-old IM Alice Lee scoring an unbeaten 8/10 on her Olympiad debut. 21-year-old Carissa Yip picked up even more rating points than Gukesh with a stunning 10/11 for individual gold on board two.

Yip may have taken notice of Jeanne Sinquefield’s offer of $100,000 to any U.S. woman who becomes a grandmaster in the next five years, though unfortunately the Olympiad result wasn’t eligible for a grandmaster norm as Yip needed to play three grandmasters.

The heroics of the two young stars papered over the cracks of some tough losses for the older members of the squad, and gave the U.S. Women a first medal in 16 years, with GM Irina Krush and IM Anna Zatonskih having also played in that team that won bronze in Dresden in 2008.  

light work no reaction #ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/Nq0xWgc3tS

— Carissa Yip (@carissayipchess) September 22, 2024

11. Spain Show It’s Not All About Youth

If one team defied the trend toward youth it was Spain, who finished fourth, their highest-ever placing.

See full standings here.

The Spanish team included 51-year-old WGM Monica Calzetta Ruiz, who scored an impressive 5.5/7, while eight-time Spanish Champion Sabrina Vega also rolled back the years to score 9.5/11, earning her individual silver behind Divya on board three. She was overcome with emotion on winning her final game to earn her first Olympiad medal.

𝐄𝐥 𝐦𝐞𝐣𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐚𝐝𝐨 𝐝𝐞 𝐥𝐚 𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚 𝐝𝐞 𝐄𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐧̃𝐚 👏 pic.twitter.com/eJE0VL5qMt

— Chess.com en Español (@chesscom_es) September 22, 2024

IM Sara Khadem also starred in her first ever Olympiad for Spain, scoring an unbeaten 7.5/9 on top board and just missing out on gold to China’s GM Zhu Jiner.

12. The Anti-Cheating Delay Is A Spoiler

In the last couple of years anti-cheating has become an ever bigger topic in chess, with a 15-minute (or more) delay to moves becoming standard in many classical tournaments. The idea is that it makes it harder for a player, or spectators interacting with a player, to see the computer’s recommended moves quickly enough to affect the game.

There's no doubt it's a useful precaution, but there are serious drawbacks as well. Apart from purely technical ones, the biggest is that delaying the action only works if those at the venue don’t share what’s going on, and especially the results. At the Olympiad, the outcome of some of the most exciting games was shared 15 minutes early, spoiling the experience for anyone who was watching the event live while also checking X or similar sites.

Funny, it says Gukesh beat Fedoseev, but I still see the game in progress.

What's the point of 15-minute delay if FIDE itself publishes the results disregarding it? https://t.co/mddFxGubGF

— Alex Colovic (@GMAlexColovic) September 22, 2024

The argument seems to have been that no embargo could be placed on such a big event, but short of removing the delay entirely it would still have helped not to share the information from official sources, since most players inside the venue have surrendered their phones.

Of course, not following social media during the games is an option, but discussing big sporting events live is part of the fun!   

13. Off-The-Board Drama Didn’t Overshadow The Chess

There were no major cheating scandals at the Olympiad, or at least none that we've heard of. We got a few cases of players being forfeited for possession of electronic devices, but not for being caught using them to cheat. Punishing the possession of SIM cards sparked debate, with Argentinian GM Diego Flores winning an appeal for a forfeited point on the basis that you can’t cheat with a lone SIM card, though fair-play officials countered that people could collude if they brought in separate items.

Uzbekistan team captain Kramnik objected to the use of mobile phones to film the Uzbekistan-India match, though the Fair Play Commission and Chief Arbiter pointed out that permission had been granted to use the devices purely for filming. Debate is likely to continue on whether a blanket ban should be imposed. 

Chess politics also didn’t eclipse the event. A FIDE General Assembly vote on readmitting Russian and Belarusian teams into chess tournaments provoked a response from the U.S. State Department, among others, but in the end the status quo was preserved. India got to enjoy their well-deserved limelight!   

Just running into a random chess player! pic.twitter.com/UC8EkcnXm5

— Viswanathan Anand (@vishy64theking) September 23, 2024

14. We’ve Got Two Years To Wait Until Tashkent 2026

So that’s all for the 2024 Chess Olympiad, and we now have to wait another two years for the next edition, which will take place in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. Then in 2028 it’s Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.

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

Previous Coverage:

• Round 11: India Clinches Historic Double Olympiad Gold
• Round 10: India On Brink Of 1st-Ever Olympiad Gold After Defeating United States
• Round 9: Uzbekistan Ends India's Win Streak In Open, Kazakhstan Takes Women's Lead
• Round 8: Gukesh, Arjun, Vidit Lead Indian Men To 16/16; Polish Women Defeat India
• Round 7: Gukesh Grinds Out Endgame Masterpiece, Both Indian Teams On Perfect 14/14
• Round 6: Indian Teams Sole Leaders After Ding Defeat Costs China
• 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