45th Chess Olympiad 2024, Budapest

[HockeywithBilli]

Chess Olympiad: USA, India and China the rating favourites

In the list of participants recently published by FIDE, the USA leads the field according to the average rating of the registered players, although Hikaru Nakamura, the current world number two, is missing. But even without Nakamura, the USA will be fielding five players with a rating over 2700 Elo.

The second place in the starting list is taken by India, which can (almost) also play with five players over 2700 Elo. Although Pentala Harikrishna is currently slightly below this limit, he is also an incredibly strong GM.

China also has a very strong team in third place in the seeding list. World Champion Ding Liren, who is no longer in top form after winning the title, is playing, though only on second board behind Wei Yi.

The top three teams are followed by the defending champions, Uzbekistan. Remarkably, the Uzbek federation has appointed Vladimir Kramnik as captain and coach, while the successful coach Ivan Sokolov is now coaching the Romanian team.

https://en.chessbase.com/post/chess-oly ... 24-lineups

[HockeywithBilli]

Women's Olympiad

Georgia is the top seed in the Women's Olympiad. Georgia is competing with a very strong, well-rehearsed and experienced team.

The Indian selection is also in second place in this tournament. Although Humpy Koneru is not taking part, the young players Vaishali and Divya Deshmuk, behind Harika Dronavalli, will add plenty of elite points to the Indian team's score.

Third in the seeding list is Poland, which has also been a firm favourite in women's team competitions for many years.

China is actually the number one in international women's chess, but the Chinese have dispensed with their top stars for the Women's Chess Olympiad and instead nominated a young team with promising up-and-coming players. With them, China is number four on the starting list.

Without Anna and Mariya Muzychuk and a few other top players, Ukraine enters as number five in the women's competition.

https://en.chessbase.com/post/chess-oly ... 24-lineups

[HockeywithBilli]

Date: 10 to 23 September

[rajitghosh]

Not sure if anybody is following the Chess Olympiad. Both Indian teams are leading after 6 rounds.

[rajitghosh]

In the 7th round the men beat China and the women beat Georgia. Both are great results. Still a long way to go.

[rajitghosh]

In the 8th round the men thrashed Iran 3.5-0.5. Good that we thrash a strong Iranian team in some sport. Unless they mess up badly gold us there for the taking. The women lost to the Poles 1.5-2.5. They had lost to them in 2022 also. They are still joint 1st but really need some good performance here on. Harika seems out of form. She has already lost 3 matches. Maybe the presuure of playing 1st board in the absence of Humpy is making her crumble. Had Humpy been there we would have been sure gold medallists here. Gukesh has been brilliant so far with a 3000+ rating performance. We play Uzebkistan next in the Open section and USA in women's. Both are tricky opponents. In fact USA may be slight favourites in the women's section.

[rajitghosh]

Indian men assured of gold with one round to go. Absolutely superb performance. Women still have a shot at gold after a good win yesterday.

[sameerph]

Yes, standout performance by our men. They is still a mathematical possibility that second placed China will overtake us but that is remote.

Our women tied at top with even chance for gold. Standout performer in women has been 18 year Divya Deshmukh who has scored 8.5 out of 10.

[rajitghosh]

India win both the golds. There will be quite a few board medals also. Gukesh, Arjun, Divya Deshmukh and possibly Vantika Agarwal should win medals.

[arjun2761]

Amazing achievement by both Indian teams! While many of us have reservation of it being a sport since no athletic ability is required, it is wonderful to see this kind of domination in an activity that is widely played in many corners of the globe.

[Atithee]

Congrats. What are its implications at the individual level? Has it ever been considered an Olympics candidate or not because it’s not a “sport?”

[rajitghosh]

Amazing achievement by both Indian teams! While many of us have reservation of it being a sport since no athletic ability is required, it is wonderful to see this kind of domination in an activity that is widely played in many corners of the globe.

While it is not a physical sport sitting for 6 hours and calculating moves requires tremendous mental strength and concentration. And without physical fitness calculating for 6 hours is tough.

[arjun2761]

^^^^sorry but that isn’t athletic physical fitness. Of course to be good at any intellectual activity, you need to have mental stamina. For example, do well in the JEE or math Olympiad or even be an effective CEO of a tech company. However, no one considers those to be athletic achievements and more often than not those folks are poor athletes.

[Atithee]

[PKBasu]

It was an incredible achievement for us to win both team gold medals at the Chess Olympiad!

And naturally there were other individual medals too -- most of them gold -- for the various boards. But being world team champions (and individual champions) brings pressure. Let's hope our chess heroes can handle the pressure. (I'm not too fussed about Arjun losing to the Turkish phenom, but it does seem that chess prowess is crystallizing at a younger and younger age).