Arjun Hits 5/5 As India Powers On; Armenian Women Topple China

GM Arjun Erigaisi is the only player on 5/5 in the Open section of the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad after his win over GM Rauf Mamedov helped India defeat Azerbaijan 3-1 in round five. Three more teams scored narrow wins to join India on maximum points: Hungary (GM Richard Rapport won a crazy game vs. GM Vasyl Ivanchuk), China (GM Wei Yi starred), and giant-killer Vietnam, who took down higher-seeded Poland. Germany's hopes suffered a knockout blow as it lost a second match, with Montenegro's GM Denis Kadric defeating GM Vincent Keymer in style.

There are just three teams now that have won all five of their matches in the Women's 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad—India, Armenia, and Mongolia—after the latter two knocked down pre-tournament favorites. Armenia defeated China, a team that had dropped just one draw in four previous matches, 2.5-1.5, with IM Anna Sargsyan winning the Game of the Day on board four. Mongolia defeated the U.S. with the same score and by the margin of a single rook endgame.

Round six of the 2024 FIDE Chess Olympiad starts on Monday, September 16, at 9 a.m. ET/15:00 CEST/6:30 p.m. IST.

• Open Section: Arjun Alone On 5/5 As Indian Juggernaut Rolls On
• Women's Section: Armenia, Mongolia Topple China, U.S. While India Narrowly Defeats Kazakhstan

Open Section: Arjun Alone On 5/5 As Indian Juggernaut Rolls On

India look unstoppable, but Hungary, China, and Vietnam have also won all their matches so far. The U.S. and Uzbekistan scored comeback wins, but a second loss, to Montenegro, all but ended Germany's medal hopes.

See full results here.

It's not just about India's impressive results but the way they've been obtained. Indian fans, and the players, have barely had to worry for a moment, and that was the case again in round five against the formidable team from Azerbaijan.

18-year-old world championship challenger GM Gukesh Dommaraju commented: "We have a nice mood in the team, and we’re having fun."

It also helped that he settled any potential nerves early by getting a close-to-winning position against 19-year-old GM Aydin Suleymanli by move 11. He called 10...Nh5?, allowing 11.Nxe5!, a "well-known trap," that he also knew could be sprung in this particular position.

The rest went like clockwork, and Gukesh is halfway to posting the same incredible start as he did in Chennai in 2022.

Gukesh started the 2022 #ChessOlympiad with 8/8. He's on 4/4 so far this year! https://t.co/FaoRfchseq pic.twitter.com/3Ddu4Y7RsM

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 15, 2024

It was the same elsewhere. GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu was never in any real danger as he made a draw, while GM Vidit Gujrathi was winning in study-like fashion against the opponents' strongest player, GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

Vidit failed to put the ball in the net, but no harm was done, since Arjun did Arjun things to become the only one of 977 players in the Open section to have played and won all rounds so far. 

He can do it in a wild, tactical frenzy, or else, as we saw against the hugely experienced GM Rauf Mamedov, by handling a quiet endgame perfectly. All it took was one weak pawn and some miscoordination in the black ranks.

You wouldn't bet against India, but we saw in the matches of the other leaders how fine the margins can be in four-game matches.

China made draws on three boards against Spain, including GM Ding Liren defusing a potentially dangerous position with the black pieces against attacking legend GM Alexei Shirov. Afterward the world champion talked to FM Mike Klein about the title which he won in 2023:

Now I’m satisfied with the title. When I first got the title, I was very nervous, and I had some psychological problems, but now I feel much better, and I need to steadily improve my chess. You will see me again this year!

Ding Liren on maybe facing Gukesh in the #ChessOlympiad: "That means we played extremely well if we can face the India team. He's on fire. This time he scored 4/4, so he's maybe the favorite!" pic.twitter.com/lc18xqPPSR

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 15, 2024

Asked about the final game remaining, GM Wei Yi vs. GM David Anton, Ding commented: "I think the position is equal, but Wei Yi looks to be the one who is pressing—he’s very confident about his position!" Sure enough, despite Anton being on 4/4, Wei finished the job off smoothly and is up to world number-seven, many years after he was written off by many as an incredible prodigy who would never reach the elite.

Wei Yi's win over David Anton sees China beat Spain to move to a perfect 10/10, and also takes Wei Yi above Firouzja into the World no. 7 spot! https://t.co/ZPFskyjPXr #ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/K1Xng6NqFU

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 15, 2024

It wasn't all about long grinds. Hungary owed its victory over the previous day's heroes Ukraine to an absolutely crazy win by Rapport over Ivanchuk.

It involved an involuntary king march and wild complications that drove Ivanchuk into time trouble in a position where you could probably spend days analyzing. Let's take a look from the moment things went off the rails.

Hungary's reward will be to face India in round six.

China, meanwhile, will take on Vietnam, with the 21st-seeded team following up beating the defending champion by taking down 11th-seeded Poland. That had looked an unlikely outcome when GM Tran Tuan Minh stumbled into a lost position on move 12.

Szymon Gumularz looks to be completely winning in 12 moves in the Poland-Vietnam clash, a meeting of 2 teams still on a perfect 8/8 match points! https://t.co/UJb74wwjX8 #ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/cxCqYfRlyr

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 15, 2024

GM Szymon Gumularz duly converted his advantage, but it wasn't enough as Vietnam struck back to win on two of the remaining boards.

That leaves four teams on a perfect 10 match points.

Among the teams chasing the leaders, Uzbekistan bounced back with a 3.5-0.5 win over Moldova, while the United States shrugged off GM Diego Flores beating GM Leinier Dominguez to beat Argentina 3-1.

GMs Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian moved to 4/4, while GM Wesley So picked up a very welcome win after his loss to Ivanchuk—even if it took 80 moves to defeat GM Leandro Krysa.

Norway remain just one match point off the lead after defeating the young team from Turkiye 3-1, though the adventures of their leader had just begun when he came to the board soaked.

It's seems Magnus may have chosen to swim to the venue today 😀 #ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/Tj33aZqv74

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 15, 2024

The "veteran" of the Turkish team, 31-year-old GM Mustafa Yilmaz, had a big advantage in the middle of the game after tricking Carlsen in some complications, but, as so often against the world number-one, the edge fizzled away to nothing after a couple of inaccurate moves. Time trouble didn't help.

Yilmaz tweeted afterward (in Turkish): 

Today, one of my biggest dreams in chess came true. Playing at the board with Carlsen, the best chess player of all time, was perhaps the thing I wanted the most. I wish I could have won, but it didn't happen, I had to settle for a draw 🇹🇷 ♟️

GM Hikaru Nakamura recapped that game, and others, from the day's action.

All was well that ended well for Carlsen and teammates.

There was drama everywhere, including another late show from GM David Howell. This time the stakes for him were lower, since England had already defeated Australia due to wins by GMs Michael Adams and Gawain Jones. That was just as well, since Howell went astray in a rook endgame and GM Bobby Cheng, who had already beaten Ivanchuk, went on to convert his advantage.

There was a funny finish, however, since the only way to avoid stalemate and win at the end was to underpromote to a knight or bishop. Cheng chose a knight, but it seems his two-handed promotion technique was not popular with the arbiter! 

Australian GM Bobby Cheng has now beaten both Vasyl Ivanchuk & David Howell at this year's #ChessOlympiad, although it seems the arbiter objected to his using 2 hands to underpromote to a knight in the final position! https://t.co/aHBODYYodW pic.twitter.com/qcijAkL3vc

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 15, 2024

Howell had no issues, however, and the win stands. 

Before we leave the Open section, there's one more game we have to cover. Seventh-seed Germany's hopes of a podium finish look to be in tatters after they lost a second match, this time to Montenegro. There were three draws, and another loss on the top board for German number-one Keymer.

He came up against an inspired Kadric but also set the scene with an unfortunate queen expedition on the queenside. Punishment was soon meted out to the black king.

The pairings for round six mean that at most two teams will go into the rest day on a perfect score. As well as China-Vietnam and Hungary-India, we have a clash between the two teams just one match point behind, Norway-Iran.

2024 Chess Olympiad Round 6 Team Pairings: Open (Top 15)

Women's Section: Armenia, Mongolia Topple China, U.S. While India Narrowly Defeats Kazakhstan

Armenia and Mongolia put up the most critical results on Sunday, and several of the matches on the top boards were decided by the margin of a single point.

See full results here.

China had scored 15.5 out of a possible 16 points ahead of this round, dropping a single draw out of four matches. It was Armenia who cracked the facade of invincibility with victories on boards one and four, while dropping a single loss on board two when WIM Mariam Mkrtchyan, refusing to accept a draw by perpetual check, walked her king into a mating net.

After three previous losses and one draw in 2018 (also in round five), Armenia overcame China for the first time in an Olympiad. IM Lilit Mkrtchian pulled off the upset on board one against GM Zhu Jiner by grabbing a pawn on h2 and living to tell the tale, but on board four IM Anna Sargsyan first sacrificed a pawn, then an exchange, for a devastating attack against Chinese prodigy IM Lu Miaoyi in our Game of the Day. GM Rafael Leitao analyzes the full game below, with the personal note, "So far this is my favorite game in the Olympiad."

Just as they did in the 2022 Olympiad, Mongolia again defeated the United States—for the second time in history. It didn't help that IM Carissa Yip resourcefully escaped an opening disaster on board two and salvaged a half-point. With draws on the two bottom boards, IM Turmunkh Munkhzul in her game against IM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova proved that all rook endgames, contrary to the popular saying, aren't drawn after all.

India's 2.5-1.5 victory against Kazakhstan was more convincing than it seems on paper. Indian GM Harika Dronavalli quickly whipped up a winning advantage with the black pieces against Kazakh IM Bibisara Assaubayeva but gradually drifted into a lost rook endgame. This 180-degree turn would normally have been alarming, but GM Vaishali Rameshbabu and IM Vantika Agrawal were winning on their boards concurrently with the disaster, and no further surprises occurred.

Of the pre-tournament favorites, India remain the last one standing at the top of the leaderboard. The question, of course, is how long can they keep it up?

As for quick recoveries, both Spain and Bulgaria won narrow matches after losing the previous round. IM Sara Khadem scored the sole victory for Spain against Norway to bring the score to 2.5-1.5, while Bulgaria vs. Latvia ended with the same result but with more decisive games.

On board two, IM Nurgyul Salimova found a peculiar way to convert a winning advantage. After 29...Kf8, the white queen that looked active on g5 suddenly turned out to be a tactical liability, and it got trapped a few moves later.

Monday will promise a fierce clash between two leaders, India and Armenia, while Georgia will have its chance to strike down the third leader, Mongolia.

2024 Chess Olympiad Round 6 Team Pairings: Women (Top 15)

NM Anthony Levin contributed reporting to this article.

The 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad is a massive team event for national federations that takes place every two years. In 2024 it's being held in Budapest, Hungary, with 11 rounds that run September 11-22. In Open and Women's sections, teams of five players compete in a Swiss Open, with each match played over four boards. There are two match points for a win and one for a draw, with board points taken into account only if teams are tied. Players have 90 minutes per game, plus 30 minutes from move 40, with a 30-second increment per move.

Previous Coverage:

• Round 4: Ivanchuk Beats So As Ukraine Topples Olympiad Top-Seed United States
• Round 3: Carlsen Bikes To Win As Giri, Keymer Suffer Shock Defeats
• Round 2: Caruana Back In 2800 Club; Canada Hold Carlsen-less Norway To Draw
• Round 1: Aronian, Mamedyarov, Arjun Live Dangerously As Top Teams Win
• 2024 FIDE Chess Olympiad: 7 Talking Points
• U.S. Top Seeds, India Close 2nd As Chess Olympiad Teams Announced