Debutants Shine For Australia In Round 1

Team Australia, proudly sponsored by Integral Diagnostics (IDX) and DGT, kicked off the 2024 FIDE Olympiad in style by posting round 1 wins over Saudi Arabia and Brunei Darussalam. All three debutants, IM Rishi Sardana, Zhiyuan Shen, and Alaina Vincent all played and won their first-ever Olympiad games and will hopefully be inspired by Australian team emeritus GM Anton Smirnov who went undefeated in his first two Olympiads (Tromso, 2014 and Baku, 2016).

We were pleasantly surprised that the shuttle to the playing venue avoided the heavy traffic we've experienced in Budapest so far and to know that we are around 20 minutes from the venue is encouraging. Arriving early, we had a look around the venue and I can confirm that after 30 minutes of searching and being let into areas we probably weren't allowed in and also barred from exiting the same buildings, we were unable to locate the expo. There is always tomorrow!

Inside the playing hall, Cardboard tables, an endless supply of juice and Coke, the powerful presence of the Polgar sisters, and broadcast cameras on the top 20-odd boards are the features that stand out to me. I do have concerns that a player on tilt might try to "melt" their table with a cup of hot coffee but as GM David Smerdon stated on his Facebook blog, there is no hot water available at the coffee station so this is not yet a viable strategy.

Round 1 is always touch-and-go and despite seeding mismatches, lower-rated countries often force top-half teams to play their best chess. The USA, who are the top seeds of the event were one team that learned this the hard way and had a tight match with the 92nd seeds Panama (former world number two GM Levon Aronian was completely losing against a 2100-rated FM).

For the Australian Open team, things were not clean either and we did suffer a defeat on board one, courtesy of inspired play by Saudi Arabia's FM Ahmed Abdullah Alrehaili. Our Bobby took the loss well and I can already tell he'll be straight back to the level that has earned him the top spot on Australia's rating lists.

The rest of the Open team rallied and won their games and GM Zong-Yuan Zhao admitted that Saudi Arabian players are underrated. He felt that the board three played like a 2,000+ player rather than an 1889. Rishi's debut win on board two was a classic grind while David's "unretirement" arc started with a bang.

 3-1 was a good score to reflect the battle between Australia and Saudi Arabia. In the women's event, the Aussies were clean as a whistle, winning 4-0 against Brunei Darussalam and earning themselves an early mark (all of their games had finished inside approximately three hours). Zhiyuan (Flora) and Alaina both scored wins on debut and I'd like to share Alaina's near-perfect conversion here after her opponent's move 11 mistake.

In round two the Open team will play a dangerous opponent in Zimbabwe who are notorious for punching above their weight while the Women's team will face the fourth seeds, an Azerbaijani team full of 2300+ players. The women will have their work cut out for them but we are Australia and therefore, we are optimistic that no team is unbeatable here in Budapest.