Finally, it's time to start. After the ceremonial opening of the Chess Olympiad on Tuesday evening, the sporting part of the 45th Chess Olympiad begins today, Wednesday, at 15.00 CEST. With a rest day in the middle of the tournament, on 17 September, eleven rounds Swiss will be played, in the Open and in the Women's Tournament.

The rounds will start at 15.00 on all days, except for the last round, which will start at 11.00 on Sunday 22 September. The prize giving ceremony will take place on Sunday evening.

In past Chess Olympiads, as in other major international team events, the fight for medals has often been very close. The luck of the draw has always played a part, and winners and medals are often decided by tie-breaks, sometimes influenced by the play of much lower-ranked teams.

Open

In the Open, top seed USA will play Panama, ranked 92nd, in table one. Second seed India will play Morocco. Hungary will play on table two for the duration of the event, regardless of their results.

It is not really expected that one of the top teams will stumble against the nominally weaker opponents, but surprises do happen. After all, many players from the nominally weaker countries have few opportunities to participate in international tournaments and are often underrated.

Top pairings round 1

*) This team always plays at the same table

A number of teams, particularly from Africa and the Arab world, have registered but have not been paired, probably because they did not arrive in time or did not get visas.

Women's Olympiad

India is the strongest team at the Women's Chess Olympiad. One might have expected the Chinese team to be the strongest, given that China has the world's top four female players according to Elo ratings - Hou Yifan, Ju Wenjun, Tan Zhongyi and Lei Tingjie. However, China is not competing with its established stars, but has put together a promising team with four young players. The team has been seeded fourth behind Georgia and Poland. Kazakhstan will start without Abdumalik and Saduakassova.

Top pairings round 1

Chess-results has all team compositions and pairings...