The perfect result: 6 out of 6 in Chennai

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

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

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

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

 

Van Foreest,M2299

0–1

Kiolbasa,O2376

Olympiad Women 20222022

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 5.Nb3 Bb6 6.Nc3 Nf6 7.Bg5 h6 8.Bh4 0-0 9.Qe2 a5 10.a4 Nd4 11.Qd3 Nxb3 12.cxb3 c6 13.Be2 Re8 14.0-0-0!? A novelty that forces Black to react energetically. d5! 15.f4 15.exd5 g5! 16.Bg3 Nxd5 17.Nxd5 cxd5 18.Kb1 Qf6 leads to a double-edged position with chances for both sides. 15...g5! A strong counter on the kingside - the side where White wanted to attack! 16.fxg5 Nxe4 17.Rhf1 hxg5 18.Bh5 Striving for complications. After 18.Nxe4 Rxe4 19.Bf2 Be6 Black's a pawn up and clearly better. 18...gxh4 19.Bxf7+ Kg7 20.Bxe8 Qg5+! 21.Kb1 Nf2 22.Rxf2 Bxf2 Black regained the exchange and is close to winning. Black's pieces are active and the passed pawn on the d-file is very strong. 23.Ka2 Bf5 24.Qf3 Be3 25.Rf1 Rxe8 26.Qxf5 Qxf5 27.Rxf5 d4 28.Nd1 Bg1 29.Nf2 Kg6 30.Rf4 Bxf2 31.Rxf2 d3 32.Rd2 Rd8 33.b4 axb4 34.b3 Kf5 35.Kb2 Ke4 36.Kc1 Ke3 37.g3 h3 38.g4 Rg8 39.Rd1 Rxg4 40.Re1+ Kd4 0–1

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.

Links

• Tournament page
• Chess-Results