The Olympiad! It’s fun! It’s exhausting! Part of me wants to look through every game; as you can see from the games featured here, I’ve had to limit myself to the top matches in the open section. Here are some of the highlights and big themes from the first half.
Six Rounds in the Books, One Perfect Score
Midway through the sixth round it looked like India and China were destined to meet after the rest day1. But then Le Quang Liem came through with one of the biggest results of the tournament: a win with the black pieces against the diminished Ding Liren. Team India couldn’t have hoped for a better first half. They’re a point ahead of the field and control their own destiny. Gukesh and Erigaisi are firing on all cylinders, a combined 10.5/11. And the one team that can field a higher average rating, the United States, is off to such a disappointing start that we might not see an India-USA match at all.
One India loss is all it would take to shake up the standings at the top, but there’s no matchup where they aren’t a heavy favorite. China is being weighed down rather than buoyed by Ding. Vietnam and Iran are shallow: their third and fourth boards are going to have a tough time against Erigaisi and Vidit. Uzbekistan and the United States are both playing significantly below their actual strength, and I don’t see either team upsetting the youngsters of the Anand generation. From my vantage point on Tuesday afternoon, it’s India’s Olympiad to lose.
Five Fantastic Finishes
There’s been a lot of nice tactical play so far. Here are five positions that caught my attention. I’ve left the solutions in the footnotes so you can try to solve them yourself.
White’s up a piece in the diagram above, but black’s attack is about to crash through. What’s the most efficient way to force resignation2?
Black’s knight is trying to cause mischief all by itself. But white is coordinated and ready to attack. What’s the best move3?
We know that Erigaisi is going to win, because that’s all he’s done at the Olympiad, a perfect 6/6. But how does he break through here4?
Caruana has been playing so well that you’d be excused for thinking he’s on Team India. In this position it looks like white has the initiative, but Fabi found a way to turn the tables. What’s the move5?
Black is down the exchange, but white’s pieces are oddly placed on the queenside. How do you continue the attack6?
Four Near Upsets
The first round of the Olympiad was … interesting? As expected, there were a lot of lopsided games between players rated many hundreds of points apart. Not expected: some of these lopsided games were due to the fact that a few elite grandmasters were getting crushed by their much lower-rated opponents. Levon Aronian found himself busted right out of the opening:
America’s board three walked right into white’s idea: 12 … Qc7? 13 g4! and the knight cannot move because of the threat of Nd6+! But Aronian wasn’t the only one. Nodirbek Yakubboev, Uzbekistan’s board two, was busted on the black side of a sharp Najdorf. Aryan Tari of Norway also played the Sicilian and was in great danger. And most surprising of all, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was down an exchange and dead lost against his 1994 rated opponent.
These games were a good reminder that anyone, no matter how strong, can lose in an upset if they don’t take their opponent seriously. That said, actually defeating a strong GM isn’t easy, no matter how good your position may be. Yakubboev, Tari, and Mamedyarov all escaped with draws, and Aronian even won after swindling his opponent.
Three Endgame Grinds
With so many strong teams, the most important skill at the Olympiad is the ability to take nothing and turn it into something, the squeezing of blood from a stone that has defined Magnus Carlsen’s reign at the top of the chess world. Here’s an impressive effort by Dominguez in the second round:
The black rook has been sliding between h8, d8, and b8 over the past few moves. White hasn’t done much other than to play Kf3-g3-f3 in response to attacks on his h-pawn. It’s a little uncomfortable to have a higher rated opponent playing cat-and-mouse with you, but for the moment it’s hard to imagine anything other than a draw. At this point white played 32 b3, an unnecessary move he had previously avoided. This was all the invitation Dominguez needed to take a shot at the king and pawn ending: 32 … Re8 33 Rxe8 Kxe8 34 Kf3 Kd7 35 Ke3 Kd6 36 Kd4 b5:
The point is that with the white pawn on b3, axb5 is no long possible: black recaptures and can create an outside passed pawn. If white doesn’t take on b5 he’s still within the drawing range, but there are suddenly more ways to go wrong. He played the only available king move, 37 Ke3!, but after 37 … Kc5 38 Kd3 g5! (gaining the e5 square for the black king in some lines) 39 hxg5 fxg5 40 f5 Kd6 41 Kd4 c5+ 42 Ke3! (the only move) 42 … Kc6 43 Kd3 c4+ he finally blundered: 44 Ke3? bxa4 45 bxa4 Kc5 and white’s in zugzwang.
While the Dominguez game only affected America’s tiebreaks, the following endgame allowed China to squeak out a 2.5-1.5 win over Spain:
Black’s biggest problem is that all his pawns are on light squares, easily targeted by the white bishop. In the diagrammed position he went wrong with 35 … Ke7?! (35 … Ke6 was better, as it prevents white’s idea). Wei Yi uncorked a nice pawn sacrifice: 36 c5! Be6 37 Re5 f6 38 Re3 Rxc5+. The pawn falls with check, but white’s point is that after 39 Kb4 he is going to win both of black’s queenside pawns, and despite Anton’s efforts, he resigned thirty moves later.
Our third endgame was just as impactful to the standings. China was up a game in the match versus Vietnam, and the top board appeared headed for a draw for a long time:
This isn’t the most pleasant rook and pawn ending to defend, but we’re talking about Ding Liren here, the guy who survived a terrible rook and pawn ending in the final game of regulation in last April’s world championship match.
Unfortunately, despite my best attempts to avoid joining the “Ding is toast” bandwagon, I have to admit that this isn’t close to the same guy we saw less than 18 months ago. The game continued 42 Rd8 Ke6 43 Re8+ Re7 44 Ra8? Now white’s losing, according to the tablebase. It was essential to keep pressure on the d-pawn to slow the activation of the black king: 44 Rd8! d5 45 Kf3! was acceptable. Le let him off the hook a few moves later: 44 … d5 45 Kf3 Ke5 46 Ra1 Re6? Either Rb7 or Rc7 win: the idea is to respond to Re1+ with Kf5 and then give check on the third rank to force the white king back. But Ding allowed this idea without a fight: 47 Ra4? Rb6! 48 Ke2 d4!, and Le converted without further difficulty.
Two Chaotic Mess-terpieces
Back in the early 2000s some of my chess buddies and I liked to imagine a bizarro world championship cycle that only included the most imaginative and chaotic elite GMs. Ivanchuk was a regular candidate, as were Morozevich and Shirov. In later years, this list would include guys like Dubov, Jobava, and Rapport. So imagine my delight when we got the matchup Ivanchuk-Rapport in the fifth round. It did not disappoint:
How’s that for an unbalanced position? White has the ideal “I’m going to kill you on the dark squares” setup in exchange for his king floating around in the middle of the board. There are two ways to stop mate. The first, 22… Qc2+ 23 Kf3 Qf5+ maintains material equality, but trades into an ending where white’s exposed king is no longer a problem. Rapport invested some material for the initiative instead: 22 … Rxe5+! 23 Kxe5 Qe2 24 Rd4 and now he played the clever 24 … Nb8!, the only winning move, and one that I imagine Ivanchuk saw a little too late.
Even more baffling was the conclusion of the battle between Anton Korobov and Ray Robson, board four of an ill-fated match for the US team:
Robson, down an exchange, is in serious trouble. Trading rooks is curtains: the pawn on a5 drops and white wins on the queenside. So instead he sets a trap, and Korobov walks right into it: 33 … Nc2+! 34 Kd2? Korobov, for the moment, suspects nothing. I’d imagine that he was expecting a trade of rooks on h8 followed by Ncxd4. But Robson played 34 … Ncxd4! instead, sacrificing another exchange! There followed 35 Rxa8 Nxb3+ 36 Kc2. Now black has compensation thanks to his dangerous center pawns after 36 … Nfd4+! 37 Kd1 Nxc5, but it was Robson’s turn to err: 36 … Nxc5? 37 Rf1! Ke5 38 Rxf5+! Kxe5 39 Rxa5 and white won on the queenside. The point is that black’s knights are better than white’s Rh1. By trading the rook for one of the knights, white stops black’s play in the center and has time to gobble up a5 and win slowly. Wild stuff.
One Suggestion for the Future of Team USA
To say that the Americans underperformed in the first half of the tournament is an understatement. All five players on the US team are elite grandmasters, but I’d argue that Fabiano Caruana is the only one actively working to become World Champion. So, Dominguez, Aronian, and Robson have all either peaked or plateaued, and this puts them at a serious disadvantage against the youthful and hungry Indian squad, three of whom played in this year’s candidates tournament. These guys win games regardless of whether or not they get a big middlegame advantage: they just keep pushing and pushing until their opponents crack.
Obviously Nakamura would make a huge difference on for the US, but so would Hans Niemann. He’s the only player who is at the same point of his chess career as Gukesh7, Pragg, and Erigaisi, and would provide some much needed energy on board three or four.
I know that to invoke the name of Hans Niemann is to invite controversy and dissent, but I think that America’s best team right now is Caruana-Nakamura-Niemann-So/Aronian. Naka and (I think) Hans declined their invitations and it’s too late to change anything for 2024, but that’s the sort of lineup we need if we’re going to challenge India and China. And by the time 2026 rolls around, we might be talking about Abhimanyu Mishra in the fourth spot.
Actually it wasn’t so clear that India was going to win. But they always seem to find a way.
The double deflection 36 … Rd2! is a lovely way to end the game. 37 Nxd2 Qxh3# is no good, and 37 Qxd2 Qxf3+ 38 Kh2 Qg3+ 39 Kh1 Qxh3# is no better, so white resigned.
Gledura finished with great accuracy, giving up an exchange and then a piece for a mating attack: 21 Nd4! Nxf5 22 Nxf5 g6 (forced) 23 Rf1! Qd8 (23 … Kh7 24 Nxh6! Kxh6 25 Rxf7 is similar) 24 Nxh6+ Kh7 25 Rxf7+! Kxh6 26 Qh3+ Kg5 27 Qe3+ Kh5 28 Rh7+ Kg4 29 h3#.
It’s a thematic demolition on the dark squares: 38 … Nxc3! 39 Rxc3 Bxd4+! 40 Nxd4 Ra1. The white queen is doomed, and either the rook or knight are falling as well.
Black would like to play 30 … Rb8, but 31 Qxe5 stops one mate and threatens another. It’s zwischenzug time! 30 … f4! cuts off the queen’s approach to e5. After 31 exf4 Rb8! is devastating, so white resigned.
McShane played the aesthetically appealing 33 … Ng4! Capturing either way leads to mate, so white responded with 34 Ne7! Now 34 … Qf4 doesn’t work in light of 35 Rg8+ Kh6 36 hxg4, so black continued with 34 … Nf2+ 35 Kh2 Qf4+ 36 g3 Qc1 37 Qf3 Nd3 38 Qg2 Ne1. White, under terrible pressure, cracked at last: 39 Qe2? Nf3+! with Ng5 to follow and black wins.
With the caveat that Gukesh might be World Champion in a couple months.