Drama at the Olympiad as Gukesh falters with just one round to go

Uzbekistan emerged as the favorites for the gold medal in the open section after a series of dramatic events over the last couple of rounds. In the women’s section, India seems like a favorite to clinch victory but there’s still everything to play for in the final round.

Gukesh crashes to earth in catastrophic fashion

One of the biggest stories so far in the Open section of the 44^th Chess Olympiad was the incredible performance of Gukesh, the 16-year-old sensation leading India-2 on Board 1. With eight straight victories in a row and a draw against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, it’s been an incredible performance. Now it was all to play for against a late-surging Uzbekistan side who have overhauled Armenia and emerged as the new favorites for the gold medal.

It seemed like the Indian youngsters would get the job done as Gukesh would only need a draw to secure a match. He started out strong against world rapid champion Nobirdek Abdusattorov (he himself only x years of age) and would have had a clearly winning position had he found 28. Qh5.

Instead, tenacious defense from Abdusattorov coupled with somewhat imprecise play from the Indian youngster eventually led to a complete erosion of White’s advantage, and there were clear opportunities to take a draw by repetition—a result that would have likely led to India’s match win based on how things were going on the other boards at the time.

Instead, Gukesh pressed on and ran into time trouble in a complicated position, running into an elementary blunder on move 72, allowing Black a simple fork to win a piece.

With this, coupled with Armenia are now even with Uzbekistan on points thanks to their win over Azerbaijan, but their worse tiebreaker (and head-to-head) score means matching their rivals’ result is not enough.

Should Uzbekistan win against the Netherlands tomorrow, their victory is assured. Otherwise, multiple teams are in contention, including Armenia (who play Spain), India-2 (who play Germany) and even India-1 and the United States in some fringe scenarios, who play each other in a bid to secure a medal for their country.

Carlsen bows out with one to spare

It was an Olympiad to forget for the Norwegian team who continued an uneven campaign with a win over Indonesia and a loss to Moldova. 2490-rated Ivan Schitco managed to hold off the (soon-to-be-former) world champion on board one with the Black pieces, a crucial result that played a big part in Norway’s defeat in the match.

This was Carlsen’s last game at the event, having confirmed he won’t be playing in the final round: his overall record of six wins and three draws in nine games, a performance rating of 2803, is somewhat below the exquisite standards he’s set himself in the past.

India in pole position to win the Women’s Olympiad

With their dominant win over Kazakhstan with a score of 3.5-0.5, India emerged as the sole leaders once again, a full point ahead of their rivals with just one round to go. A late collapse on the part of Poland’s Monika Socko, who was on the verge of salvaging a poor position, meant that they tied their match with Georgia, leaving India’s first team as the frontrunners.

With all three Indian teams winning in Round 10, they all have a chance for a podium finish in the final round. Should India-1 defeat the United States, they are guaranteed the gold. In certain scenarios, even a draw would suffice.