Budapest R2 (open): Canada, Mongolia and Ireland draw top-20 teams

Norway, Czechia and Israel stumble

After two rounds of competition, the majority of the top 20 teams remain perfect, with 17 of them having a full score of 4/4 in the open section of the Chess Olympiad. The top seeds are proving their strength, maintaining their composure through the opening rounds against lower-rated teams. However, three of the top 20 teams - Norway (6^th seed), the Czech Republic (19^th seed), and Israel (20^th seed) - saw their campaigns take unexpected turns, as they were held to draws by nominally weaker opponents on Thursday.

The Norwegian team was without their star player, Magnus Carlsen, on the top board, as they fielded grandmaster Johan-Sebastian Christiansen on board 1 against Canada. A match featuring 4 decisive results - all wins for the player with the white pieces - ended drawn, with upset wins by Canadian GMs Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux and Razvan Preotu.

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The Czech Republic found themselves in a tough battle against Mongolia, a team that entered the match as underdogs but displayed exceptional resilience. The Czech team could not find a way past the Mongolian defence and had to settle for a 2-2 draw. This result, while not catastrophic, complicates the Czechs' path forward as they now have less room for error in future rounds.

Similarly, Israel were held to a 2-2 draw by Ireland in what was one of the more surprising results of the day. Much like in the Norway v. Canada match, all games ended decisively in this confrontation. Wins for Tarun Kanyamarala and Tom O'Gorman allowed the Irish squad to grab a highly valuable match point.

While many teams still boast a perfect match score, only 3 teams can claim a flawless individual performance across all boards: India, Slovenia and Georgia. These teams have won all 8 of their individual games across the first two rounds, demonstrating not only depth but consistency across their entire lineups.

A satisfied Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux (Canada) right after beating Johan-Sebastian Christiansen (Norway) | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

The Georgian team (right, facing Costa Rica) won both their matches by a 4-0 score | Photo: FIDE / Maria Emelianova

Elite grandmasters join the fray

Round 2 also marked the debut of several elite grandmasters, including world champion Ding Liren, former World Championship challenger Fabiano Caruana and the next challenger for the crown, Dommaraju Gukesh.

Caruana, playing on the top board for the United States, delivered a stunning win with the white pieces against Singapore's Tin Jingyao. Gukesh, one of India's brightest stars, displayed his talent to beat Iceland's Vignir Vatnar Stefansson (who comes from winning the Gáldar Open) with the black pieces. Ding, on his part, was held to a draw by Chile's Cristóbal Henríquez, who later described the experience of facing the world champion as "one of the most beautiful in my chess career".

While the result was a minor setback for Ding, it does little to diminish China's overall chances in the tournament. Ding's teammates, in fact, won all 7 remaining games on the first two days of action in Budapest.

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Ding Liren (right) sharing a laugh with teammate Yu Yangyi | Photo: FIDE / Anna Shtourman

Dommaraju Gukesh | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

Caruana 1 - 0 Tin

Caruana, Fabiano2798

1–0

Tin, Jingyao2580

45th FIDE Olympiad 2024 Budapest12.09.2024[CC]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d3 Bc5 5.0-0 d6 6.c3 0-0 7.h3 Not the most popular variation in the much fashionable Italian Opening. Still, this line has been explored often recently. a6 8.a4 h6 9.Re1 Re8 10.b4 Ba7 11.Nbd2 Be6 12.Bxe6 Rxe6 The players return to a very popular setup out of this opening. Caruana has played this exact position from the white side three times this year (2 wins against Firouzja and 1 loss against Dominguez). 13.Bb2 d5 14.b5 Ne7 15.exd5 Qxd5 16.c4

Though the players had already spent a bit of time in the last few moves, this is still a theoretical position - e.g. Leko beat Abdusattorov from the white side in 2019. 16...Qxd3 17.Nxe5 Also playable is 17.Bxe5 and e.g.: Re8 18.Bxf6 gxf6 19.Qb3 Rd8 with a rich, double-edged position. 17...Qf5 18.Qf3 Rd8 19.Nb3 It was all quite forced in the last 3 moves, but Black now must decide how to proceed. He must decide, for example, whether to trade queens or not - a tough decision while facing one of the strongest players of this era. c6 Not the most accurate, though by no means losing. Tin decided not to play 19...Qxf3 20.Nxf3 Rd3 most likely due to 20...Rxe1+ 21.Rxe1 Ng6 22.Na5 is not great for Black. 21.Rxe6 fxe6 22.Bd4 Rxb3 23.Bxa7 and engines evaluate the position as equal, though Black is the one with the isolated pawn on the e-file. 20.c5

20...cxb5 The losing mistake, which looks surprising at first sight! Correct is 20...Bb8 though White has 21.Nd4 and after Qxf3 22.Nexf3 Rxe1+ 23.Rxe1 Nfd5 24.b6 White has a positional edge, but the battle continues. 21.Qxb7 Qc2 22.Nd4 The killer shot! Caruana shows his astounding calculation ability to make the most of his advantage. Qxc5 23.Nxe6 Qxf2+ Black probably considered that this attack would give him enough counterplay, but White is clearly winning. 24.Kh1 fxe6 25.Qxe7 Rd2 26.Qf7+

White's queen and knight create a strong attacking tandem... 26...Kh8 27.Ng6+ Kh7 28.Nf8+ Kh8 29.Qg6 ...while managing to defend the mating threat on g2. Rxb2 30.Nxe6 Nh5 31.Qe8+ Kh7 32.Ng5+

A beautiful final move! Given the time he spent on each move, Caruana probably had all this worked out after move 24. 32.Ng5+ hxg5 33.Qxh5+ Kg8 34.Re8+ Qf8 35.Rxf8+ Kxf8 36.Re1 with mate-in-5 for White. 1–0

Elite GMs having fun: Leinier Dominguez, Levon Aronian, Fabiano Caruana (United States) and Richard Rapport (Hungary) | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

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Standings after round 2 - Open

...182 teams

Round 3 pairings - Open

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All games - Round 2 (Open)

Links

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