Uzbekistan and Armenia continued to ride the wave of success by dominating the top rankings of the Netherlands and Spain on paper in the 11th round and 44th FIDE Chess Olympics final respectively. The two outsiders finished in first place with 19 points, but it was Uzbekistan’s youth class who were awarded the gold medal thanks to the better draw. Seed number 11, India 2, beat Germany with a final score of 3-1, to move up to third on the podium with 18 points.
The finals of the Women’s Olympics saw the leading and favorite team, India, lose 3-1 against the United States. Ukraine and Georgia, in ambush, took the opportunity to win against Poland and Azerbaijan respectively. Thus Ukraine won the gold medal just ahead of Georgia while India entertained themselves with bronze thanks to the better tie between Kazakhstan and the United States.
In the end, the first Indian team won the Gaprindashvili Cup (which crowned the nation that finished in the best overall place) by finishing third in the mixed section and fourth in the women’s tournament, a total of seven points (3+4; lowest score won). The United States (5+4=9) and India 2 (3+8=11) complete the podium.
The 16-year-old prodigy, Dommaraju Gukesh, the big revelation of the India 2 team, won the gold medal on the first board with a stratospheric score of 9/11 and a performance at 2867. Nihal Sarin (India 2, 7.5/10, Perf 2774), David Howell (England, 7.5/8, Perf 2898), Jakhongir Vakhidov (Uzbekistan, 6.5/8, Perf 2813) and Mateusz Bartel (Poland, 8.5/10, Perf 2778) were awarded medals from the second chessboard for the reserves.
Legendary Swedish GM Pia Cramling won the Women’s Olympic first board gold medal with a 9.5/11 and a performance of 2532. GM Nino Batsiashvili (Georgia, 7.5/10, Perf 2504), Mf Oliwia Kiolbasa (Poland, 9.5/11, Perf 2565), Bat-Erdene Mungunzul (Mongolia, 8.5/10, Perf 2460) and GMf Jana Schneider (Germany, 9/10, Perf 2414) were awarded medals from second board to reserves.
Mixed Part
As the tense finals began, the most crucial matches were Armenia (17 points) against Spain (15), and Uzbekistan (17) against the Netherlands (15). Although in great shape, Armenia and Uzbekistan do not have an easy task because on all chessboards except the opposite Javokhir Sindarov to Benjamin Bok, their players rank lower than their opponents.
The consistency of his elements which allowed Armenia to take the lead for most of the tournament and Gabriel Sargissian’s success against Alexei Shirov in the first table are further evidence of this. The Spanish artist’s desire to complicate the position in any way quickly turned against him:
After a mixed start with four draws against worthy opponents and then a loss to Gukesh, this is Sargissian’s last remaining result of an impressive 4.5/5 with wins against Fabiano Caruana, Pentala Harikrishna and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov! The power taken by the Armenian leader also made life easier for all of his team-mates, who just had to hold on to their positions to ensure victory for the encounter. Perfect match strategy.
On the other hand, the confrontation between Uzbekistan and the Netherlands offers a fierce battle on all the chessboards simultaneously:
During the live broadcast, GM Daniel Naroditsky predicted that the match between Max Warmerdam and Vakhidov would decide the fate of the match and he was not mistaken because the victory of the youth of Uzbekistan presented the gold medal to his nation:
Two other important matches of the day also gave rise to a fierce battle which initially saw the youth of India 2 come out victorious once again. Nihal’s win over Matthias Bluebaum was qualified by Naroditsky’s “sounding positional masterpiece:
Raunak Sadhwani and Dieter Nisipeanu, true to their style, offer exciting gameplay of rare complexity:
It is ironic that the two top seeds of the tournament, the United States and India, should meet in the final with few chances for a medal. The face of the big winners of the competition ended in a draw.
Arjun Erigaisi was impressed by Leinier Domniguez’s strategic dominance:
Sam Shankland equalized with surgical technique in the final:
See all results here.
Women’s section
In comparison, the women’s section saw many games where the tense tournament situation led to unbalanced play and obvious mistakes made by the players. The tournament leaders and top-ranked teams had a bad day, with none of the matches going as planned from the start. While GM Humpy Koneru survived an anxious midfield, MI Tania Sachdev lost to the whites against MI Carissa Yip following the spirited East India players:
In the fourth board, GMf Tatev Abrahamyan quickly put MI Bhakti Kulkarni in trouble and offered themselves a convincing win:
India fell off the pedestal, Ukraine and Georgia gave their best on the chessboard to overtake them. For Ukraine, GM Mariya Muzychuk took advantage of her rival’s poor choices:
GM Anna Ushenina won a pawn in the middlegame against WIM Oliwia Kiolbasa who was in top form and once again benefited from an inaccurate play in the same end:
Another important match between Azerbaijan and Georgia also had many ups and downs:
The best part of this duel was delivered by IM Meri Arabidze:
GM Arturs Niksans and Naroditsky praised the top team’s efforts in the tiebreak. “Ukraine deserves it, considering what’s going on in their country. I mean, how can you focus on chess now?” Neiksans said, while Naroditsky joined in saying, “They all still have families in Ukraine. What a story!”
See all results here.
The 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad and Women’s Chess Olympiad are team-based events in front of the chessboard where national chess federations compete in classic games for gold medals, trophies and the title of the strongest chess nation in the world. The event consists of an 11-round Swiss tournament where each player from one national team plays against another player from the opposing national team. Teams receive “game points” for a win or a draw and “match points” for a win or a draw. The team that gets the most match points in each section becomes the champion of their section. The third prize is awarded to the team with the most points in the two halves combined.
Previously:
- Armenia, Uzbekistan Share Leaders At Open; India Leads In Women
- Uzbekistan Jumps To Lead In Open; Four Shares Lead In Women; Kiolbasa Advances To 9/9
- Armenia in Open, India in Women’s Team Defend; Gukesh beats Caruana for 8/8
- Armenia Maintain Open Lead; India Expands Excellence in Women’s Field; Gukesh 7/7
- Armenia in Singles Leader in Open, India in Women’s, Gukesh 6/6 in Top
- India 2, Armenia Lead Open; India, Georgia, Romania Lead Women’s
- Hosted By Uzbekistan, US Survives Fear; Abdusattorov Surprises Caruana
- Italy Surprises Norway On Endgame Day, Estonian Grandmaster Passes Out On Leaderboard
- Favorite Continue With All Wins
- Almost Smooth Sailing For The Top Seed On Zugzwangs Day
- 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad Inaugurated In Chennai, India
- 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad: All Information
- 44th FIDE Women’s Chess Olympiad: All Information
