One of the most notable storylines of this Olympiad is just how strong the Armenian team turned out to be even after their strongest player, Levon Aronian, swapped federations and moved over to the United States. They are no strangers to strong results at this event, with three different gold medals in the country’s cabinet in past Olympiads, but this one would perhaps be the biggest surprise.
Armenia’s win over India in Round 8 came courtesy of Gabriel Sargissian’s win on the top board with three other draws in the match. No wonder he cracked a little smile when the game was over: had they drawn the match, it would have been a three-way tie between Armenia, Uzbekistan, and India-2 with just three rounds to go. It was a tense affair with mutual time trouble, and it was this endgame position where his opponent, Pentala Harikrishna, went wrong with the Black pieces on the 96th move with Nb4:
The point is that Black cannot protect the c5 pawn, the pride and joy of his position, and its loss is catastrophic in the position as White just gobbles up everything else. The computer’s only suggested continuation is the counter-intuitive a5, which offers Black a crucial extra tempo to run his king up the board and blockade the c5 square, with the knight covering b4. Since the bishop is on the wrong color, there would have been no way forward for the Armenian player. This, of course, came after their draw with the United States, a match that was essentially decided by Sam Shankland’s catastrophic error.
In a difficult but potentially holdable endgame, he anticipated Qh1+ in time trouble and missed the fact that his opponent played Qg2 instead. His move was illegal (resulting in a time penalty), but worse yet, the touch-move rule meant that he had to move with his king, and all legal king moves happened to lead to a losing position.
16-year-old Dommaraju Gukesh continued his remarkable form, scoring yet another win to maintain a perfect record. This time, his victim was from the absolute chess elite in the form of Fabiano Caruana, who’s been having a torrid time at this Olympiad and fell out of the top 10 rankings in the world for the first time since March 2013.
Despite Caruana’s advantage in the opening, the game turned into a slaughter by move 30 as the White king was under a devastating assault. The match ended in a comprehensive 3-1 victory for India-2, a score that could have been even more lopsided had Nihal Sarin had a bit more time and composure in a winning position against Levon Aronian on board 3.
Before the event, many commentators wondered whether this young, explosive India-2 team featuring four teenagers could outperform the nation’s top squad. They’re now two points ahead of them (and the only ones with a chance to overhaul Armenia of the three home rosters.) The way the event’s been going so far, this very much looks like the first sign of a changing of the guard at the highest levels of elite chess. (India’s first and third team actually met up in round seven, and the India-1 squad scored a fairly comprehensive 3-1 victory, courtesy of wins on the lower boards.) Back in January 2019, Gukesh stated in an interview that he wanted to become the world champion. This rings very, very different today.
Round 9 will see India-2 go up against Azerbaijan, meaning Gukesh will now have to face Shakriyar Mamedyarov with the White pieces to try and maintain his perfect record. Meanwhile, Armenia faces Uzbekistan to try and keep its lead.
Despite starting high on the rating charts and having an outside chance for a medal finish in the absence of Russia and China at this year’s Olympiad, the Norwegian team has not lived up to pre-tournament expectations despite Magnus Carlsen’s record of six wins and two draws on the top board. A win over North Macedonia was followed by a draw with Slovakia, putting them in the 35-57th position with just three rounds to go. The round was effectively won on board one as 2594-rated Jergus Pechac managed to hold Carlsen to a draw with the Black pieces, excellently navigating an endgame to earn half a point.
The abdicating world champion missed a trick on move 17 by playing d4 instead of f4, which would have been a more damaging way to remove Black’s e5 pawn and open up the structure more favorably. Instead, the d-file opened up, and mass exchange of pieces followed, and Black had no problem holding the position in the ensuing endgame.
In what could be a remarkable Olympiad for the home team, India-1 continues to maintain a lead over the field in the Women’s section of the event. A hard-fought draw with India, the other top seed at the event, leaves them a full point clear of Georgia, a team they’ve previously defeated 3-1, after their crushing victory over Armenia’s women’s team.
In this section, Poland’s Oliwia Kiolbasa is the standout individual performer with an 868 score of her own, with a performance rating of 2984 for the time being.
It’s truly crunch time now at the Olympiad: with three rounds of play to go, the window of opportunity is beginning to close for the chasing pack in both sections. The tension keeps growing, and fewer players can manage to maintain their perfect scores.