Nodirbeks on fire

Uzbekistan's home Olympiad continues to go perfectly. After seven rounds, the hosts are the only team with a perfect 14/14 match score, and Wednesday's 3–1 victory over China gave them a two-point cushion over the chasing pack.

The decisive work was done by the two Nodirbeks, both of whom played with the white pieces. Nodirbek Abdusattorov defeated former world champion Ding Liren on board one, while Nodirbek Yakubboev got the better of Yu Yangyi on board three.

On the other two boards, Javokhir Sindarov and Mukhiddin Madaminov took on sharp openings with black against Wei Yi and Xu Xiangyu and managed to keep both games under control. With China and Armenia suffering their first individual defeats of the tournament, Uzbekistan are now the only team still unbeaten on every board.

Abdusattorov has scored 5½/7 for a 2856 tournament performance rating, gaining 10 rating points and climbing to 5^th place in the live rankings. Yakubboev has been even more impressive, scoring 5½/6 for a 2933 performance rating. His gain of 28.4 rating points has taken him to 25^th in the live list.

Their next test will be quite challenging, nonetheless, as Uzbekistan will face fifth-seeded Germany in round eight on Thursday.

Abdusattorov v. Ding

Ding's decision to play ...f7-f5 earlier in the game left him with a weakness on e6, but demonstrated the fighting spirit he has been showing in the event. Here, already down on the clock, he faltered by playing the rather ambitious 22...Ra7?!, when 22...Rad8, simply defending the d-pawn, was the way to go.

After 23.Bxd4 there followed 23...Rd7 24.Bxc5 Rxd3 25.Re3. Now with 12 minutes on the clock to Abdusattorov's 33, Ding faltered again with 25...Red8?

Black should have traded rooks with 25...Rxe3 and continued with 26.Bxe3 f4, attempting to get a simplified position with bishops of opposite colours, which would have still required precise defensive technique to deal with the white majority on the queenside.

Instead, Ding attempted to create counterplay by doubling his rooks. Abdusattorov correctly handled the ensuing position, making the most of his initiative to keep making progress, eventually getting two connected passers on the b and c-files.

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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

White kept everything under control on the kingside with his major pieces, while the passers on the other flank comfortably advanced down the board. Ding resigned on move 45.

Javokhir Sindarov and Armenia's Haik Martirosyan following closely the battle between Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Ding Liren | Photo: Rafal Oleksiewicz / FIDE

Local hero Nodirbek Yakubboev | Photo: Rafal Oleksiewicz / FIDE

Five teams remain within touching distance

China and Armenia had entered round seven just one match point behind the leaders. China lost ground after their defeat, while Armenia stayed in the chasing pack by drawing 2–2 with the United States.

That group now also includes India, Germany, the Netherlands and Azerbaijan, all on 12/14 match points.

The Armenia v. United States match produced two decisive games. Awonder Liang defeated Gabriel Sargissian, giving the American his second win and thus returning to a fifty-percent score after suffering consecutive losses in rounds two and three, while handing Armenia their first individual defeat. Robert Hovhanissyan then beat Wesley So from a difficult, close-to-balanced endgame to restore equality.

Levon Aronian, who was born in Armenia, was not included in the United States lineup.

Liang v. Sargissian

From a position that engines evaluated as almost completely equal, Sargissian faltered by playing the imprecise 20...f4?!. Liang needed less than 4 minutes to find the remarkable 21.Bf6!. After 21...Ne7 22.Bxd4 Qc6 23.Qxc6 Nxc6 White emerged with an extra pawn and a clear positional advantage.

Liang duly converted his advantage into a crucial win for Team USA.

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Awonder Liang | Photo: Rafal Oleksiewicz / FIDE

India recovered from an individual defeat to beat England 2½–1½. Luke McShane defeated Nihal Sarin, but Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Gukesh Dommaraju supplied the two Indian wins. Gukesh continues to have a strong event individually. He now has 6/7 and a 2773 tournament performance rating.

Germany kept pace with a 3–1 win over Türkiye, with brothers Frederik and Rasmus Svane scoring the decisive points on the bottom two boards.

Azerbaijan were even more convincing against Greece, winning 3½–½. Their leading individual performer so far has been Aydin Suleymanli, who obtained one of the three wins for his team on Wednesday, has scored 5½/7 for a 2727 performance rating.

Germany's Frederik Svane facing Türkiye's Isik Can | Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu | Photo: Rafal Oleksiewicz / FIDE

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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.
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Free sample video: Introduction
Free sample video: Invisible moves

Captain of the Indian team Srinath Narayanan sharing a laugh with world champion Gukesh Dommaraju | Photo: Rafal Oleksiewicz / FIDE

The Netherlands also won 3½–½ against Bulgaria, with victories on the top three boards. That result followed their 4–0 win by forfeit against Israel in round six. That earlier result has continued to generate discussion since a 4–0 forfeit can have a significant impact on potential tiebreak decisions near the top of the standings.

Dimitrov v. Schoppen

A curious material imbalance was seen in the endgame reached in the encounter between Bulgaria's Radoslav Dimitrov and Netherlands' Casper Schoppen. White has four pawns for a rook, with three of the extra pawns being connected passers.

Though at some point engines gave Black a slight advantage, extreme precision was needed to make progress - in fact, both sides could have faltered at numerous critical junctures in the unorthodox setup.

In the end, precise play by both sides led to a draw, with Schoppen finding a drawing line that included a promotion to a knight on move 69.

69.e8=N+ draws here! (Of course, 69.e8=Q fails to 69...Rh1#) White will collect the rook on g7, and the ensuing pawn-up rook ending is drawn thanks to Black's active king in the centre.

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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.

Anish Giri defeated Arkadij Naiditsch on board one | Photo: Rafal Oleksiewicz / FIDE

Peter Heine Nielsen was among those who argued on social media that FIDE's handling of the situation has not been ideal from a sporting perspective. Since Yom Kippur was known in advance to overlap with two playing days, a number of solutions could have been put in place (post 1, post 2):

1. It is agreed before the tournament that their rounds can be postponed.
2. Or they are not allowed to play, if they intend to forfeit.
3. If a team refuses to play a round, they should forfeit before the pairings are done, get a default 0-4 loss, but at least not be paired, and affect the sporting integrity of the event.

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

Standings after round 7

...205 teams

All games - Round 7

Find all games on Live.ChessBase.com

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