9/13/2024 – The second round of the Women's Chess Olympiad saw most matches ending with expected victories for the tournament's rating favourites. In terms of team results, the biggest upset of the round took place on board 36, where Singapore (the 77th seeds) stunned Latvia (36th) with a 2½-1½ victory. There were also surprises on a few individual boards, as the margin for error narrows in Budapest. | Photo: FIDE / Maria Emelianova
new: Fritz 20
Your personal chess trainer. Your toughest opponent. Your strongest ally. FRITZ 20 is more than just a chess engine – it is a training revolution for ambitious players and professionals. Whether you are taking your first steps into the world of serious chess training, or already playing at tournament level, FRITZ 20 will help you train more efficiently, intelligently and individually than ever before.
Your personal chess trainer. Your toughest opponent. Your strongest ally. FRITZ 20 is more than just a chess engine – it is a training revolution for ambitious players and professionals. Whether you are taking your first steps into the world of serious chess training, or already playing at tournament level, FRITZ 20 will help you train more efficiently, intelligently and individually than ever before.
How much opening prep is really necessary - especially in blitz and rapid games? The idea of a “lazy” but smart repertoire: minimal theory, rich ideas, and easy-to-remember structures.
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Favourites still ahead
As anticipated, most of the higher-seeded teams continued their march forward in the second round of the Women's Chess Olympiad. Powerhouses such as India, Georgia, Poland and China secured convincing victories against their lower-ranked opponents. Featuring GMs or IMs on their top boards, their talent and preparation were on full display.
However, a few individual boards saw unexpected results. For example, Montenegro's Nikolina Koljevic defeated the much higher-rated Salome Melia from Georgia, or Lithuania's Olena Martynkova toppled the Ukrainian Yuliia Osmak. In both cases, the underdog prevailed with the black pieces.
In terms of team results, the biggest upset of the round took place on board 36, where Singapore (the 77th seeds) stunned Latvia (36th) with a 2½-1½ victory. Wins by Kay Yan Eden Pang and Kun Fang, both with the black pieces, gave their team overall victory. The fact that Singapore will host the World Championship match at the end of the year might have served as motivation for the national teams to work extra hard to show their best at the Olympiad.
In this video course, experts (Pelletier, Marin, Müller and Reeh) examine the games of Judit Polgar. Let them show you which openings Polgar chose to play, where her strength in middlegames were, or how she outplayed her opponents in the endgame.
These upsets, while not enough to greatly alter the standings, demonstrated the competitive spirit and unpredictability of the Olympiad. It's a reminder to the higher-seeded teams that every board matters and that a single upset can have significant consequences.
Nikolina Koljevic from Montenegro playing black against Salome Melia from Georgia on board | Photo: FIDE / Maria Emelianova
As the tournament moves into Friday's third round, several high-profile matchups promise more thrilling games. The top teams are now beginning to face more evenly matched opponents, and as the stakes rise, so will the level of play.
In the top match of round 3, the rating favourites from India will face Switzerland, led by former world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk. Another exciting match will feature Georgia taking on Romania, which has the experienced Irina Bulmaga on the top board. Much like Romania, the Greek team will include a player who has recently faced the best in the world on the top board - Stavroula Tsolakidou - as they will look to upset the strong Polish squad.
With each round, the margin for error narrows, and every game becomes crucial as teams aim for glory in Budapest.
India's Divya Deshmukh might play on board 2 or board 3 in Friday's key match against Switzerland | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza
In this Fritztrainer: “Attack like a Super GM” with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.
Ukraine barely managed to beat Lithuania in round 2 | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza
Looking for a realistic way to play for a win with Black against 1.e4 without taking unnecessary risks? The Taimanov Sicilian is a reliable system, and hence one of the best options out there!
Carlos Alberto ColodroCarlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.
In this video course experts examine the games of Bent Larsen. Let them show you which openings Larsen chose, where his strength in middlegames were, how he outplayed his opponents in the endgame & you’ll get a glimpse of his tactical abilities!
From the 2026 Candidates Tournament, featuring a video review by Dorian Rogozenco, to Jan Werle’s opening video on the French Tarrasch Defence, and Oliver Reeh’s tactical column ‘Top Grandmasters at Work’. Analyses by Giri, So, Wei Yi and many others.
You will learn how Black's dynamic piece activity and structural counterplay more than compensate for White's extra tempo in the colour-reversed setups.
In this course, you’ll learn how to take the initiative against the London and prevent White from comfortably playing their usual system by playing 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 Nh5.
London System Powerbase 2026 is a database and contains in all 11 285 games from Mega 2026 and the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 282 are annotated.
The London System Powerbook 2026 is based on more than 410 000 games or game fragments from different opening moves and ECO codes; what they all have in common is that White plays d4 and Bf4 but does not play c4.
In this course, Grandmaster Elisabeth Pähtz presents the London System, a structured and ambitious approach based on the immediate Bf4, leading to rich and dynamic positions.
€59.90
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