By WGM Anna Burtasova

The Women’s Chess Olympiad, like the Open section, will set a participation record this year with 184 teams registered, compared to 162 in Chennai in 2022. Several women’s teams, including Liechtenstein, Guernsey, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis, the US Virgin Islands, St. Lucia, and the Cayman Islands, will make their debut.

The top teams from the last edition—Ukraine, Georgia, and India—are among the favorites in Budapest as well. According to the average rating of their rosters, the top teams are India (2467), Georgia (2462), Poland (2422), China (2416), and Ukraine (2400).

India’s lineup is a mix of experienced players and young stars. In the absence of Humpy Koneru, who played in 2022, the team is led by Harika Dronavalli, participating in her 10th Olympiad. Harika debuted for the national team in 2004 and hasn’t missed an Olympiad since, playing on the first board six times. Her teammates include youngsters Vaishali R, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal, and seasoned player Tania Sachdev, who has been on the national team since 2008. Indian chess is on the rise, and it’s time for them to shine. The Indian women have never been Olympic rating favorites before and have only one bronze medal, won at home in Chennai in 2022.

Georgia, on the other hand, is a traditional chess superpower with nine medals in total (four gold, two silver, three bronze), the latest being silver in 2022 in a close contest with champions Ukraine. However, Georgia’s gold medals were won in the 90s, with the team still led by the legendary Nona Gaprindashvili, and the latest in 2008, with another legend, Maia Chiburdanidze, on board one. It’s time for their successors to remind us of Georgia’s women’s chess phenomenon. The lineup includes well-known names: Nana Dzagnidze, Lela Javakhishvili, Nino Batsiashvili, Bella Khotenashvili, and Salome Melia. For all of them, this is not their first or even second Olympiad, and they are eager to finally win the gold.

Their task, as well as that of defending champions Ukraine, won’t be easy. Recent years have marked a generational shift in chess, and both Georgia and Ukraine are full of “veterans.” For example, Dzagnidze’s first Olympiad was in 2004. For Ukraine, another problem is the absence of the Muzychuk sisters. Without two of the world’s top-10 players, it will be difficult to fight for the top spot, yet the team of Yuliia Osmak is rated #5 in the starting list. The lineup continues with Anna Ushenina, Nataliya Buksa, Inna Gaponenko, and Evgeniya Doluhanova. The trump card for the Ukrainians is their spirit. They have proven that they can deliver surprises against all odds, so even a quest for gold is not completely out of the question.

Apart from the up-and-coming India, China has made a bet on a new generation and is bringing in a very young squad. All four top players—Hou Yifan, Ju Wenjun, Tan Zhongyi, and Lei Tingjie—are missing the tournament. Instead, the country that holds the Olympic medal record, having made it to the podium 14 times, more than the Soviet Union, presents a team of emerging talents: 21-year-old Zhu Jiner, 14-year-old Lu Miaoyi, 19-year-old Song Yuxin, 29-year-old Guo Qi, and 27-year-old Ni Shiqun. Lu Miaoyi (pictured below) was mentioned by Tan Zhongyi in her post-Candidates interview as the greatest rising star. She’s already rated 2438 and is #31 in the women’s rating list. Born into a chess family, her mother, WGM Xu Yuanyuan, introduced her to chess at three and started formal training with her at the age of seven.

The performance of this team will definitely attract a lot of attention, and rightly so. After the pandemic years, the young Chinese talents are still relatively unknown and are very likely to cause a sensation in Budapest.

Reinforced by Alina Kashlinskaya and Aleksandra Maltsevskaya, who changed federations, Poland’s team is starting historically high at the third spot. Kashlinskaya proved her great form coming out of maternity leave by clinching the Tbilisi FIDE Women’s Grand Prix in August. The matriarch of Polish chess, Monika Socko, has been a constant in the Polish team since 1994. Blend in Oliwia Kiolbasa, who scored the best individual performance at the previous Olympiad (9.5/11 with a 2565 performance rating), and young talent Alicja Śliwicka, and you get a team that will be fighting for their first Olympic gold this year.

The scene for the team competition is set, but let’s not forget about individual performances. Among the players to follow are many bright personalities, like Bodhana Sivanandan, who’s playing for England at 9 years old, or 80-year-old WIM Rani Hamid from Bangladesh, who is a 20-time national champion and started playing chess at 34, or WIM Natasha Morales Santos, a visually impaired player leading the team of Puerto Rico.

In anticipation of the great chess spectacle starting on September 10, you can check the participating teams here:

Chess-Results - 45th Chess Olympiad Budapest 2024.

Photos: Lennart Ootes,  Madelene Belinki, Mark Livshitz and Stev Bonhage