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6 Surprising Blunders At 45th Chess Olympiad In Budapest
How many blunders did you see at the 2024 Chess Olympiad? Photo: Mark Livshitz/FIDE.

6 Surprising Blunders At 45th Chess Olympiad In Budapest

raync910
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At any prestigious tournament, we are all watching for blunders to be made, particularly by the most elite players. Is there something special about a pawn on the path to promotion that makes it vulnerable to a blunder? Do you remember seeing these blunders at the just concluded Olympiad?

45th Chess Olympiad In Budapest

The Chess Olympiad is a huge team event held for national federations every two years. The 45th Olympiad, held September 11-22 in Budapest, was an 11-round team Swiss tournament played in classical time control. Players had 90 minutes per game, plus 30 minutes from move 40, with a 30-second increment per move. In the Open and Women's sections, teams of five players competed with each match played over four boards.

The start of the Gukesh-Caruana game in round 10.
The start of the Gukesh-Caruana game in round 10; Caruana later blundered on move 34. Photo: Mark Livshitz/FIDE.

Caruana Blunders Pawn Ready To Promote

With more than 1,800 players (including more than 200 unrated participants) on the 193 teams in the Open section and 181 teams in the Women’s section, an occasional blunder during the event is expected. But one by GM Fabiano Caruana?

In the 10th round, his game against GM Gukesh Dommaraju was even until Caruana made his 34th move, …Qg6, which swung the evaluation bar 2.2 points in Gukesh’s favor. (A better choice would have been …Ng6.) After Gukesh’s 35th move (made with just 21 seconds on his clock), Rf4, Caruana could not defend his d2-pawn, which Gukesh captured on his 37th move. With an extra pawn and the attack, Gukesh went on to win the game.

Caruana’s loss was one of two by the U.S. team to India in round 10
Caruana’s loss was one of two by the U.S. team to India in round 10, as India solidified its lead and increased its match points to an overwhelming 19. Image: Chess.com.

Chess Legends Make Blunders Too

Of course, chess legends are not immune/exempt from making a blunder at such a high-profile tournament. In round three, GM Vasyl Ivanchuk once the number-two player in the world, blundered with 11 seconds left on his clock. On his 39th move in his game against GM Bobby Cheng, Ivanchuk grabbed a pawn that let Cheng make a game-winning fork. (Even with the blunder, Ivanchuk played the game with an accuracy of 93.6 percent.)

Two Blunders Result In A Draw

In round seven, GM Jorden van Foreest had a winning position in his game against GM Alexey Sarana and then did what we all fear: he blundered. Before van Foreest made his 30th move, g4, the evaluation bar pointed in his favor by 2.8 points. After the move, Sarana had a 3.3-point advantage, a swing of more than six points. (Van Foreest had three favorable options for this move—Bd5, Rd2, or Bc3—that would have retained the winning position.)

On his 35th move, Sarana returned the favor and blundered with …h6, which swung the evaluation bar back to an even game. The game in which each player had had winning advantage ended in a draw.

Blundering Against Gukesh Can Be Fatal

In a game against GM Gukesh Dommaraju in round eight, GM Parham Maghsoodloo had recovered from his initial slips early in the game, notably his 15th and 18th moves, when the game was even after 27 moves. However, a blunder on his 29th move, Nc4, shifted the evaluation bar in Gukesh’s favor by 4.6 points. The game continued just five more moves when Maghsoodloo resigned—the blunder was too damaging.

Blundering A Passed Pawn

In the same round, IM Vantika Agrawal, one of the stars of India’s gold-medal Women’s team, was cruising to a fifth win in a row when she failed to protect her passed a-pawn, which should have guaranteed her a victory. The pawn was quickly seized by WIM Alicja Sliwicka, who was able to hold on to a draw.

Pawn Advances After Opponent’s Blunder

In a very complex endgame in round nine, GM Leinier Dominguez and GM Sanan Sjugirov were very much even after 40 moves when both players received another 30 minutes. However, on his 41st move, Sjugirov made a blunder that lost the game for him. Dominguez took advantage of the blunder and marched a passed pawn toward promotion.

Is A Forfeit A Blunder?

Finally, is it a blunder to show up late to a tournament and lose by forfeit? For the third round, GM Magnus Carlsen biked to the tournament venue (after giving up on his teammates who were supposed to pick him up but were stuck in traffic) and barely arrived in time to make his first move. If he had arrived four minutes later, he would have lost by forfeit. Forfeiting a game would be as terrible as a blunder; however, he succeeded in checkmating GM Roberto Garcia Pantoja—and later said that he could look back on the near-forfeit as just "a fun story."

Carlsen rushes by bike to the tournament hall.
Carlsen rushes by bike to the tournament hall but where should he enter? (He's quickly guided to his spot by the Chess.com photographer.) Image: News9live.com

The 45th Olympiad in which India scored double gold had more than its share of drama. Blunders were, as expected, a part of the scene. As Savielly Tartakower once remarked: “The blunders are all there on the board, waiting to be made.” (For more amazing details about this Olympiad, see the recap article “14 Things We Learned.”)

Blunders
Image: Chess.com.

What do you think? Did any blunder at this Olympiad surprise you?

raync910
Ray Linville

Ray Linville’s high point as a chess player occurred when he swiped the queen of GM Hikaru Nakamura in a 60-second bullet game in 2021.  This game was reported in a “My Best Move” column of the Chess Life magazine, published by the U.S. Chess Federation.

At Chess.com, he has been an editor (part-time) since 2019 and has edited news articles and tournament reports—including those of the Candidates and World Championship Tournaments and other major events—by titled players and noted chess writers as well as Game of the Day annotations by leading grandmasters. He has also been a contributing writer of chess terms, e-books, and general interest articles for ChessKid.com.

He enjoys “top blogger” status at Chess.com. His blog has won the award for Best Chess Blog from the Chess Journalists of America for several years. In addition, he has also been the recipient of first-place CJA awards for feature article, humorous contribution, online review, and educational lesson as well as honorable mention in the categories of personal narrative and historical article.

This blog has won the award for Best Chess Blog from the Chess Journalists of America. In addition, I have also been the recipient of first-place awards for online review, feature article, humorous contribution, and educational lesson as well as honorable mention in the categories of personal narrative and historical article. Articles that won these awards are:

In addition, my article "How Knight Promotions Win Chess Games" was selected by Chess.com as "Blog of the Month."

Be sure to check out these articles as well as others that I have posted. I hope you enjoy reading what I have written and will follow this blog to see my future posts.