The perfect result: 6 out of 6 in Chennai

by Johannes Fischer
8/5/2022 – The young Indian Gukesh is one of the stars of the Chess Olympiad 2022 in Chennai. In the first six rounds he won all of his games, which adds up to an Elo-performance of 3329. But Gukesh is not the only player who started with 6 out of 6 in Chennai. Oliwia Kiolbasa from Poland (pictured) and the young FM Kazybek Nogerbek from Kazakhstan also achieved this feat. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

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Dommaraju Gukesh is playing on home turf at the Chess Olympiad as he was born in Chennai on 29 May 2006. In 2018, he won the World Youth Championship U12 and at the age of 12 years, 7 months and 17 days, he became a Grandmaster - at that time, and after Sergey Karjakin, the second youngest Grandmaster ever.

Gukesh's score after six rounds

Rd. Snr   Name Elo Country Rp Pts. Res. Bd.
1 406 IM Al Hosani Omran 2215 UAE 1533 0 b 1 1
2 307 IM Kiik Kalle 2365 EST 2432 4 w 1 1
3 112 GM Georgiadis Nico 2578 SUI 2483 3 b 1 1
4 74 GM Vocaturo Daniele 2616 ITA 2579 3 w 1 1
5 13 GM Shirov Alexei 2704 ESP 2611 3,5 b 1 1
6 16 GM Sargissian Gabriel 2698 ARM 2567 2 w 1 1

Gukesh does not only score, he is also scoring convinvingly. In round 4 he showed his tactical skills and his feeling for dynamics.

 

At the start of the Olympiad Gukesh had an Elo rating of 2684, but on the live ranking list he now already has 2719.3 points, making him the second best junior in the world - behind Alireza Firouzja - and putting him on place 27 in world rankings.

So far the most successful player in Chennai: Dommaraju Gukesh | Photo: Madelene Belinki

Gukesh's games from rounds 1 to 6

 

Less well-known than Gukesh is Kazybek Nogerbek, born in 2004, who plays on board 5 for Kazakhstan. Nogerbek started the Olympiad with an Elo rating of 2437, but comes to Elo-performance of 2865.

At the moment the young Kazakh is still a FM, but he proved his enormous talent in April and May 2022 at the European Youth Championships in Blitz- and Rapid chess in Rhodes, Greece: he became European Youth Champion U18 in both disciplines, blitz and rapid.

In the first six rounds in Chennai, Nogerbek had only one really strong opponent, which he, however, outplayed convincingly.

 

Nogerbek's score after six rounds

Rd. Snr   Name Elo Country Rp Pts. Result Bd.
1 769   Wu Bing-Shen 1660 TPE 1985 2 b 1 4
2 505   Sharifov Mekhriddin 2097 TJK 2018 2,5 w 1 4
3 541   Khoder Akram 2038 LBN 2181 2 b 1 4
4 908   Hadj Kholti Yasser 1871 MAR 2018 2 w 1 4
5 403 FM Golubovskis Maksims 2219 LAT 2210 3 w 1 4
6 930 IM Zwardon Vojtech 2503 CZE 2368 2 b 1 4

Nogerbek's ganes from rounds 1 to 6

 

In the Women's Olympiad only one player has 6 out of 6: Oliwia Kiolbasa, Poland's board three. Kiolbasa was born on 26 April 2000 in Augustow and in 2016 she became a WIM. But her biggest success so far was third place in the 2021 European Women's Championship.

At the start of the Chess Olympiad, Kiolbasa had an Elo rating of 2376, but her current Elo- performance in Chennai is 2952.

Kiolbasa's score after six rounds

Rd. Snr   Name Elo Country Rp Pts. Results Bd.
1 360   Ahmad Murad Fatema Alzahraa 1791 SYR 1662 1 b 1 2
2 159 WIM Berke Ana 2163 CRO 2112 4 w 1 2
3 132 WGM Nguyen Thi Mai Hung 2223 VIE 2063 3 w 1 3
4 85 FM Van Foreest Machteld 2299 NED 2089 2 b 1 3
5 160 WFM Ciolacu Alessia-Mihaela 2163 ROU 2029 2 w 1 3
6 107 WGM Eric Jovana 2271 SRB 2164 3,5 b 1 3

In round 4 Kiolbase showed her feeling for dynamics when playing against Machteld Van Foreest from the Netherlands.

 

Kiolbasa's games from rounds 1 to 6

 

It will be interesting to see how long the winning streaks of Gukesh, Nogerbek and Kiolbasa will continue. They are impressive in any case.

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Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".