45th Chess Olympiad R03: Netherlands and Germany fall, several favorites stumble

Friday, 13 Sep 2024 21:05

Round 3 of the 4th Chess Olympiad brought the biggest upsets so far, with two top teams losing their matches in the open section and a few others drawing.

The Netherlands, seeded 5th, lost to 23rd-seeded Italy by 1-3. Lorenzo Lodici (2556) defeated Anish Giri (2724), Francesco Sonis (2554) won against Max Warmerdam (2679), and Sabino Brunello (2511) triumphed over Erwin L’Ami (2628). Jorden Van Foreest (2696) was the only Dutch player to win, defeating Luca Moroni (2558).

Germany (#7) lost to Lithuania (#23) by 1.5-2.5 after Alexander Donchenko (2638) blundered away a winning position to Valery Kazakouski (2577). England (#8) only managed a draw with Denmark (#30), and Iran (#10) lost match points by drawing with Georgia (#32).

India is going strong, defeating Hungary B by 3.5-0.5. So far, the team has conceded only 0.5 points to opponents in all 12 games. China also confidently won against Slovenia 3-1.

The USA had no problems against Bulgaria, winning the match 3.5-0.5. Levon Aronian opened the scoring and shared some thoughts on his games in an interview. Reflecting on Game 1, which caused his fans a lot of anxiety, he said he was ready to resign but kept going and creating tricks because he was playing for the team.

World #1 Magnus Carlsen played his first game, arriving at the hall 10 minutes late. His journey to face Colombian GM Roberto Garcia Pantoja was somewhat of an adventure. He arrived by bike in the rain, rushed to the venue, got confused about the entrance, and was finally taken through the media doors. Despite this, he defeated his opponent with the black pieces, contributing to his team’s 3.5-0.5 win.

After the game, he commented: “It was a bit of a mess. I am in a different hotel from the others, so they were supposed to pick me up. Then, they suddenly told me that traffic was horrible and they would be at my hotel at five to three. At that point, I thought I couldn’t get there in time by car, so I decided biking might be faster.”

Upsets also occurred in the women’s section. One of the favorites, Georgia, drew their match with Romania. Dzagnidze (2508) and Batsiashvili (2461) on boards 1 and 3 won their games against Bulmaga (2406) and Voicu-Jagodzinsky (2271), but on the other two boards, the Romanian players reached their opponents’ kings. Javakhishvili (2446) got caught in an unexpected mating net in the endgame against Sandu (2248), and Khotenashvili (2432) blundered mate in two moves to Ciolacu (2160).

Greece surprised everyone, drawing with one of the favorites, Poland. Pavlidou (2141) won a rollercoaster game against Maltsevskaya (2404), which ended with three queens on the board and the black king on d3. The best performer of the previous Olympiad, Kiolbasa (2348), struck back with a win against Makropoulou (2103). The other two games finished in a draw.

Other favorites, namely India, China, and Ukraine, did not face major problems in their respective matches but lost some board points along the way.

Sixteen teams in the open section have won all three matches so far: India, USA, Uzbekistan, China, Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Poland, Spain, Ukraine, Armenia, Lithuania, Sweden, Hungary, Italy, Montenegro, and Serbia (listed in order of tiebreaks).

In the women’s section, sixteen teams are in the lead with 6 match points: USA, Spain, England, China, Bulgaria, France, India, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Serbia, Vietnam, Armenia, Turkey, Netherlands, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia (listed in order of tiebreaks).

Going into the third round, only India, Slovenia, and Germany managed to win both matches with a 4-0 score in the open section. In the women’s tournament, six teams—Poland, China, Spain, Armenia, Argentina, and Iran—achieved this feat. However, none of them could maintain their perfect streak!

Position of the day:

Arjun Erigaisi (India, 2778) – Peter Prohaszka (Hungary B, 2542)

White to move