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 GMs 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

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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• Full pairings and standings on Chess-Results: Open | Women
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All games - Round 2 (Open)

Links

• Official website
• Chess Olympiad Open Section: Who will reign supreme in Budapest?
• Women's Olympiad preview: Rising stars and veterans
• Budapest gets ready for the 2024 Chess Olympiad
• Previous ChessBase reports: Chennai 2022 | Batumi 2018 | Baku 2016
• Pairings and standings on Chess-Results: Open | Women