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Caruana Back In 2800 Club; Canada Hold Carlsen-less Norway To Draw
Fabiano Caruana and Richard Rapport were among the players who began their Olympiad campaign in Round 2 and won. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Caruana Back In 2800 Club; Canada Hold Carlsen-less Norway To Draw

Colin_McGourty
Colin_McGourty
| 43 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Fabiano Caruana is back above 2800 after beginning the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad with a sparkling win over Singaporean GM Jingyao Tin. There were also winning debuts for GMs Gukesh Dommaraju and Richard Rapport, while World Champion Ding Liren was held to a draw. GM Magnus Carlsen sat out round two as well for sixth seed Norway, who were the one top team not to win—they were held to a 2-2 draw by 50th seed Canada.

Georgia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan dropped individual upsets in the Women's 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad but continued their winning ways in round two. The most impressive was WIM Olena Martynkova's (2176) upset against IM Yuliia Osmak (2471) in a close Lithuania-Ukraine match that ended 1.5-2.5.

Round three of the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad starts on Friday, September 13, at 9 a.m. ET/15:00 CEST/6:30 p.m. IST.

Open Section: Don't Ask What Magnus Would Do!

The top 18 seeds all won their matches in round two of the open section to move to 4/4 match points, with one exception—Norway was held to a draw by Canada. 

See full results here.

Round two of the Olympiad is traditionally when we see the big guns wheeled out, and that was the case this time, with world number-three Caruana drafted in to face Singapore. He didn't waste any time stamping his authority on the tournament as he crashed through against his 24-year-old GM opponent. 

Our Game of the Day is Caruana's win, which has been analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao below.

That result saw Caruana climb back above 2800, joining only Carlsen and GM Hikaru Nakamura in the most exclusive club in chess.

The top-20 on the live ratings list. Image: 2700chess.

The Olympiad is a team event, however, and Caruana made clear that the team can aim for nothing other than gold.

At the time he was interviewed, he was deeply worried for his team. GMs Leinier Dominguez and Ray Robson had rock-solid but also highly-drawish positions with the black pieces, while GM Levon Aronian was again sacrificing material and getting into trouble. Caruana commented: "It’s normal to have these first-round jitters, but it looks like today is maybe worse, because the last I saw maybe his position was just losing—I didn’t see a move for him!"

Aronian worked his magic again. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Aronian did Aronian things, however, and it all worked out in the end, as he bamboozled FM Zhenyong Jayden Wong just as he had another teenage opponent the day before. Things were never quite as bad as they seemed. 

Everything is going to plan!

Remarkably, the U.S. went on to win 4-0 after Robson and Dominguez's opponents eventually cracked in long endgames.

Gukesh helped India maintain its perfect score. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Other players who made their debut in round two included Rapport, who won a fine 30-move game against Peruvian GM Jorge Cori, and world championship challenger Gukesh, who built up a kingside attack and then pounced on a mistake by Icelandic GM Vignir Vatnar Stefansson. 

Gukesh's colleagues GMs Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, and Pentala Harikrishna all won as India was one of just three teams—the others are Slovenia and Georgia—to score a perfect 8/8 in the first two rounds.

China would also have reached 8/8 if not for Ding being held to a draw by Chilean GM Cristobal Henriquez Villagra, who made no mistake, except perhaps for turning up five minutes late to the start of the game. Henriquez called playing the world champion and making a draw "one of the most beautiful days of my chess career."

One player who still hasn't begun his Olympiad campaign is Carlsen, though it turned out the reason wasn't that he was busy playing a secret match with Nakamura!

Nevertheless, the absence would have consequences since his replacement, GM Johan-Sebastian Christiansen, who had won a great game in round one, probably asked himself, "what would Magnus do?" when he was offered a very early chance to make a draw with Black.

He could have stopped the clocks and told the arbiter he wanted to play 12...Qa6 with a draw by three-fold repetition, but instead, he found the strength to play 12...e5!?. 

Johan-Sebastian Christiansen and the agony of choice. Photo: Mark Livshitz/FIDE.

A long, intriguing game full of twists and turns followed, but it was Canadian GM Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux who had all the fun. One mistake (63...Qe5+ instead of 63...Qe7+) and a drawn queen endgame was winning, with Rodrigue-Lemieux going on to create a new queen. Christiansen tried every last trick, but it wasn't enough, as he sank to a loss in 103 moves!

The queens speak for themselves. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

That game meant that the match ended in a 2-2 draw after all four games were decisive.

To find more underdogs holding favorites to draws, you needed to scroll down another 13 matches to where Mongolia (63rd seed) drew 2-2 with the Czech Republic (19th seed), Ireland (64th seed) drew with Israel (20th), and Tajikistan (87th seed) drew with Greece (23rd). Most of the underdogs were thrilled with tying their matches...

...but not all. Mongolian IM Amilal Munkhdalai made a draw against Czech IM Jan Vykouk, but he seems to be winning in the final position, if the moves were transmitted accurately. 

Amilal looked devastated after the draw. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

It's only possible to scratch the surface of all the games, but one joy is to see 55-year-old GM Vasyl Ivanchuk, a candidate for the strongest player never to become world champion, back in action. 

Ivanchuk, who played his first Olympiad in 1988, found the winning move and reached 2/2. Asked why he liked the Olympiads, he replied, "I simply like to play chess," before adding: "I represent my country, especially now in a hard situation. We will try and fight and show all the best."

The chess action continues Friday, with the round-three pairings meaning the competition again gets tougher for the top teams.

2024 Chess Olympiad Round 3 Team Pairings: Open (Top 15)

No. SNo FED Team : Team FED SNo
1 24 Bulgaria : United States of America 1
2 31 Austria : Hungary 9
3 2 India : Hungary B 25
4 26 Slovenia : China 3
5 4 Uzbekistan : Croatia 27
6 28 Italy : Netherlands 5
7 29 Lithuania : Germany 7
8 8 England : Denmark 30
9 10 Iran : Georgia 32
10 33 Argentina : Poland 11
11 12 Azerbaijan : Moldova 34
12 35 Cuba : Spain 13
13 14 France : Montenegro 36
14 37 Australia : Ukraine 15
15 16 Serbia : Switzerland 38

Women's Section: Georgia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan Drop Individual Upsets En Route To Victory

There are now 41 teams that have won both matches so far, with the competition getting tougher each day. Round two featured far fewer 4-0 sweeps than in round one, and while there were no major upsets in overall match scores at the top, they did occur on individual boards.

See full results here.

The closest match on the top boards was Ukraine-Lithuania, which ended 2.5-1.5. WFM Gabija Simkunaite (2005) drew WGM Evgeniya Doluhanova (2304) on board four, while Martynkova upset Osmak on board one. After fighting back from a much worse position earlier, Martynkova navigated the tactical fireworks starting with 22.Bg4! better than her opponent.

A big upset on board one in Ukraine-Lithuania. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Georgia, the second seed in the tournament, suffered one loss on their way to defeating Montenegro though they handily finished the match with a 3-0 score. Playing the black side on board four, WFM Nikolina Koljevic (2030) defeated the almost-300-points-higher-rated IM Salome Melia (2293) after the latter made a space-gaining pawn push in the opening that she'd quickly regret:

A great individual upset for Koljevic, though Georgia continues winning. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

The following teams from the top 15 matches finished with 4-0 sweeps: Poland, China, Spain, and Armenia. A handful of favorite teams dropped a half-point on their way: India winning against Czech Republic, Hungary against Ecuador, the U.S. against the Philippines, Bulgaria against Egypt, and France against Luxembourg.

As for another close match, Finland lost 2.5-1.5 against Kazakstan, earning a full point when Lauri Bederdin (2065) upset IM Alua Nurman (2324) in a mutual time scramble, where the latter completely lost control in what was once a better position. On board one, IM Anastasia Nazarova (2265) held IM Bibisara Assaubayeva (2482) to a draw.

Kazakhstan won a close match against Finland. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Several women are playing their first Olympiad ever this year, and FM Mike Klein interviewed a number. Pauline Woodward of Guernsey, the oldest player in the tournament, corrected Klein saying she was 83 years young before playing her game. It's the first time her country has sent a women's team to the event, and she won her first game ever at an Olympiad as her team beat Seychelles 4-0.

Another player who's at her first Olympiad is 14-year-old IM Alice Lee, who shared that she was doing her schoolwork instead of playing in round one, though she watched the games of her teammates. After this interview, she also won her first-ever Olympiad game as her team defeated the Philippines. 

On the top board in round three, India will face 21st seed Switzerland with an average rating of 2282 and will most likely have top Swiss woman player on board one, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk.

2024 Chess Olympiad Round 3 Team Pairings: Women (Top 15)

No. SNo FED Team : Team FED SNo
1 21 Switzerland : India 1
2 14 Hungary : Uzbekistan 34
3 2 Georgia : Romania 22
4 23 Greece : Poland 3
5 4 China : Italy 24
6 25 Israel : Ukraine 5
7 6 Azerbaijan : Argentina 26
8 27 Canada : United States of America 7
9 8 Germany : Slovenia 28
10 29 Cuba : Spain 9
11 10 Kazakhstan : Austria 30
12 31 Hungary B : Armenia 11
13 12 Bulgaria : Slovakia 32
14 33 Sweden : France 13
15 35 Norway : England 15

NM Anthony Levin contributed reporting to this article.

How to watch?

You can watch our live broadcast on the chess24 YouTube and Twitch channels, while GM Hikaru Nakamura will also be streaming on his Twitch and Kick channels. The games can also be checked out on our dedicated 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad events page. 

The live broadcast was hosted by GM Robert Hess and John Sargent.

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:

Colin_McGourty
Colin McGourty

Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.

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