China lead the board-point standings

The fourth round of the Chess Olympiad brought the leading teams into more evenly matched territory, but the favourites largely continued to hold their ground. There were no major upsets on the top boards on Saturday, and eight teams finished the day with a perfect 8/8 points.

Seven of those eight co-leaders had started the tournament among the top eight seeds, underlining how few major surprises there have been near the top of the standings so far. The only top-eight team missing from the leading group is Azerbaijan (7^th seed), while Armenia (10^th) have taken their place among the perfect scorers.

Master Class Vol.20 - Bent Larsen

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!
Bent Larsen (1935–2010) was the greatest chess player in Danish history, and for a time, the second-strongest player in the Western world behind Bobby Fischer. Between 1954 and 1971, he won the Danish Championship six times, and achieved numerous international tournament victories throughout his career. 
Free video sample: Introduction to Bent Larsen by Peter Heine Nielsen
Free video sample: Introduction to the Opening Section

Azerbaijan dropped their first match point after being held to a 2–2 draw by Czechia (20^th). France (9^th) also slipped from the leading group after drawing with Romania (23^rd). Both matches saw all four games ending drawn.

Czechia's 16-year-old GM Vaclav Finek (right) has so far scored 3/4 on board three - here, he is facing Azerbaijan's Mahammad Muradli (draw) | Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

Four teams still unbeaten on every board

China, Uzbekistan, Germany and Armenia have not yet lost an individual game in the event.

China currently have the best board score among the co-leaders with 13½/16 points, just ahead of Uzbekistan on 13/16. Germany and Armenia follow with 12½/16 apiece.

Interestingly, China are not alone in reaching 13½ board points. Iran and Romania, both on 7/8 match points, have matched that total, while Iceland have also scored 13½/16 despite standing on 6/8 in the team standings.

There have also been a number of strong individual starts among the leaders. Anish Giri has the best record in the tournament so far with 4/4 for the Netherlands. Five other players from the co-leading teams are on 3/3: Wei Yi and Xiangrui Kong for China, Alexander Donchenko for Germany, Wesley So for the United States and Jorden van Foreest for the Netherlands.

Sunday's fifth round should begin to separate the leading group, as the eight teams on 8/8 match points will face each other directly on the top four boards: Hungary will meet Uzbekistan, Germany will face the United States, India will take on the Netherlands, while China will play Armenia.

Germany's Frederik Svane and Alexander Donchenko playing on boards three and four during Saturday's fourth round | Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

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Experienced Dutch GM Loek van Wely | Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

Nodirbek Abdusattorov playing against Turkish ace Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus (draw) | Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

Fabiano Caruana following the sharp encounter between Levon Aronian and Roman Dehtiarov - Aronian first survived a clearly inferior position and then outplayed his young rival | Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

Lithuania continue strong start

Three matches among the top 20 boards ended drawn. As mentioned above Czechia held Azerbaijan and Romania held France, while Ireland (66^th) drew with Denmark (25^th).

The biggest upset of the day came further down the board order, where Lithuania (37^th) defeated Croatia (17^th) by 3–1. Lithuania had already shown their resilience in round three by holding 11th-seeded England to a draw. Against Croatia, they went one better thanks to wins with White from Paulius Pultinevicius and Pijus Stremavicius. Both players now have perfect 3/3 individual scores in Samarkand.

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In this insightful video course, Grandmaster David Navara shares practical advice on when to calculate deeply in a position — and just as importantly, when not to.
In this insightful video course, Grandmaster David Navara shares practical advice on when to calculate deeply in a position — and just as importantly, when not to.
Free sample video: Introduction
Free sample video: Invisible moves

Fans of all ages gather to get a glimpse of their chess heroes | Photo: Mark Livshitz / FIDE

Uzbekistan v. Türkiye

Despite this being a position with hundreds of predecessor games, Vahap Sanal spent almost half an hour thinking and finally opted for the mistaken 9...Nxd4?!, which does not lose a pawn instantly, but leaves Black in a positionally inferior position after 10.Nxd4 e5 11.Bg3 exd4 12.Qa4+ Bd7 13.Qxd4

Perhaps already aware that he had made an imprecision, Sanal did not defend the isolated pawn on d5 with 13...Bc6 and instead went for 13...Bxg3 hxg3 14.h6, and Yakubboev confidently collected the pawn with 14...Nxd5. The Turkish GM ended up down a pawn and clearly down on the clock. Yakubboev went on to get a crucial 30-move win, as all remaining games ended drawn in the match.

United States v. Ukraine

In what turned out to be a wild encounter, European champion Roman Dehtiarov obtained a clear advantage out of the opening against Levon Aronian. Here, however, his 24.Nf6?! was a bit hasty (24.Bd3 would have kept his clear advantage).

The resourceful Aronian found the best possible continuation, which included giving up the queen to reach a setup with a strange material imbalance: 24...gxf6 25.exf6 Bxf6 26.Rxc5 Bxb2

Engines evaluated the ensuing position as equal, but the 43-year-old US representative managed to outplay his young opponent to collect his second consecutive win of the event.

Spain v. India

In what is already a clearly better position, Arjun Erigaisi found the surprising manoeuvre (which he surely foresaw before entering this line) that keeps White's large advantage: 26.0-0!

Black cannot play 26...Nxd3 due to 27.Qg6+ Kh8 28.Qxh6+ Kg8 29.Qxg5+ Kh7 30.Qxe3+

Maksim Chigaev instead went for 26...Ng7, but Erigaisi had no trouble calmly trading rooks to get a queen and knight endgame that is completely winning for White, as the tandem can wreak havoc around Black's weakened kingside position.

Serbia v. China

Wei Yi got to completely dominate Aleksandr Indjic's position to obtain his third victory in as many games. The Serbian GM resigned after 48.Bc7, though he surely decided not to give up earlier in this game only because this is a team competition.

Germany v. Poland

Alexander Donchenko converted this slightly superior ending with black to get the victory in the one game that finished decisively in the Germany v. Poland match.

• Official website
• Read the full regulations
• Full teams' compositions and pairings on Chess-Results: Open | Women's

Standings after round 4

A Supergrandmaster's Guide to Openings Vol.1 & 2

This video course includes GM Anish Giri's deep insights and IM Sagar Shah's pertinent questions to the super GM. In Vol.1 all the openings after 1.e4 are covered.

...205 teams

All games - Round 4

Find all games on Live.ChessBase.com

• Official website
• Read the full regulations
• Full teams' compositions and pairings on Chess-Results: Open | Women's