2024 FIDE Chess Olympiad: 7 Talking Points

The 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad has been opened in Budapest, with the games starting Wednesday. As almost 2,000 chess players, from world number-one Magnus Carlsen to over 200 unrated participants, converge on the Hungarian capital, can India, top seed in the Women’s section and 2nd to the U.S.A. in the Open, make this their year? That’s just one of the questions going into the 2024 Olympiad.

Round one of the 2024 FIDE Chess Olympiad starts on Wednesday, September 11 at 9 a.m. ET/15:00 CEST/6:30 p.m. IST.

The Chess Olympiad, held once every two years, is the highest-participation top event in chess, with 380 national teams of five players from almost 200 countries competing in an 11-round tournament played over four boards.

The last Olympiad in Chennai, India in 2022 was opened by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a huge stadium. This time the Opening Ceremony was much more modest, but Hungarian chess royalty was on hand as the Polgar sisters did the honors. Judit brought the flame…

And at the end of the walk...
The Budapest Chess Olympiad is opened!❤🙂#ChessConnectsUs #honor #ChessOlympiad #beauty #competition #sportevent #Hungary #FIDEchess https://t.co/0vzjD5HaTY

— Judit Polgar (@GMJuditPolgar) September 10, 2024

…while Susan and Sofia completed the draw to decide who would start with Black in round one.

The drawing of colours for round 1 was made by @SusanPolgar and Sofia Polgar for the Open and the Women’s sections respectively. The first board of top-seeded teams in each section will start with Black! #ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/rxgEM7lOEM

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) September 10, 2024

That just left the team captains to finalize their team orders before the action commences Wednesday. Let’s take a look at some of the talking points.

1. Has India's Time Come?
2. Will Ding Or Gukesh Make A Statement Before Their Match?
3. Can Carlsen Tick Individual Olympiad Gold Off His To-Do List?
4. Which Dark Horses Will Emerge From The Pack?
5. Firouzja, Nakamura & Co — Who’s Missing In Budapest?
6. Hotels, Visas, Politics: Will Anything Overshadow The Chess?
7. The Olympiad Is Going To Be Huge

1. Has India’s Time Come?

India finished 71st in the 2024 Paris Olympics, but it has every chance of winning the Chess Olympiad in Budapest. As the host country in 2022, India could field multiple teams, and it did, taking bronze and fourth in the Open, and bronze and eighth in the Women’s section.

This year the main change since the line-ups were announced almost two months ago is that the Indian women have overtaken four-time Women’s Chess Olympiad winners Georgia on average rating to become the top seeds.

The Indian team has youth on its side, with GM Vaishali Rameshbabu and IM Divya Deshmukh in particular two rising stars of women's chess, but will face a stiff challenge from the experienced Georgian team. There's a bigger rating gap to Poland, while six-time champion China, as we’ll get to later, is missing its top players, but still ranks fourth.

In the Open section India starts as second seed behind the U.S., which has GMs Levon Aronian and Leinier Dominguez replacing GMs Hikaru Nakamura and Sam Shankland from the team that won gold in 2016. 

India combines the experience of GMs Vidit Gujrathi and Pentala Harikrishna with the awesome young talents of GMs Gukesh Dommaraju, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, and world number-four Arjun Erigaisi, who they've decided to play on board three!

China is back after skipping the 2022 Olympiad, with the same formidable backbone of the team that won gold in 2018, as well as blast-from-the-past GM Wang Yue, the current Chinese Champion.

Don't, of course, write off the defending champions from Uzbekistan, with GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov leading the same team that triumphed in Chennai. The young stars have only got two years stronger since.     

2. Will Ding Or Gukesh Make A Statement Before Their Match?

It's just 2.5 months until the 2024 FIDE Chess World Championship begins in Singapore, and all eyes will again be on World Champion Ding and his challenger Gukesh. Will Ding shake off the malaise that's plagued him since winning the title and boost his confidence before the match? Or will Gukesh again suggest the title is his for the taking? He's got a high bar to live up to—in 2022 he started the Olympiad with 8/8 and went on to take individual gold on board one!

Chess is tough, however, and that fantastic result included a heartbreaking loss in perhaps the most important game of the whole event.

The loss was so devastating for Gukesh he put his head in his hand and didn't resign... Abdusattorov eventually pointed out his opponent's time had run out! https://t.co/rpJBRjzfs8 #ChessOlympiad #c24live pic.twitter.com/ClxdcC8qcG

— chess24 (@chess24com) August 8, 2022

As we've seen since, Gukesh didn't let it affect him. 

3. Can Carlsen Tick Individual Olympiad Gold Off His To-Do List?

While Ding and Gukesh will likely be playing for team gold, it would take a phenomenal feat for Carlsen to lift sixth-seeded Norway onto the podium, but it is another chance to cross off a bucket-list item. In 2023 he won the World Cup for the first time and picked up his first individual gold in a major team event at the European Team Chess Championship. Can he take Olympiad gold for the first time?

The newly-crowned Speed Chess Champion will need to slow down a bit in his first classical-only tournament in almost 10 months. 

I show some speed

— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) September 8, 2024      

4. Which Dark Horses Will Emerge From The Pack?

The winning Uzbek team was only seeded 14th in 2022, and the Olympiad, with just four boards in play in each match, can be hugely unpredictable. In the Open section, for instance, you could easily make a case for any of a dozen more teams to challenge for gold, including the likes of the Netherlands (GMs Anish Giri and Jorden van Foreest), Germany (GM Vincent Keymer), England (GM Nikita Vitiugov boosting stars such as GMs David Howell, Michael Adams, and Gawain Jones), hosts Hungary (with GM Richard Rapport back from playing for Romania, and GM Peter Leko back from commentating in 2022), Iran (GMs Parham Maghsoodloo and Amin Tabatabaei), and Poland (GMs Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Radoslaw Wojtaszek).

Don't rule out perennial Olympiad over-achiever Armenia (champion in 2006, 2008, and 2012, and runner-up in 2022), while 15th-seeded Ukraine may have an average rating of 2650, but has four players whose peak was well above 2700, including legendary GMs Vasyl Ivanchuk and Ruslan Ponomariov. They're not joined by their current number-one, GM Igor Kovalenko, who is fighting in Ukraine.

Igor Kovalenko was originally listed as playing for Ukraine in the #ChessOlympiad that starts in Budapest tomorrow, but instead the Ukrainian no. 1 is playing #TitledTuesday from somewhere much less safe https://t.co/3Cd1Nroth3

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 10, 2024

5. Firouzja, Nakamura & Co — Who’s Missing In Budapest?

The majority of top players who were able to are playing in the Open section (GM Hans Niemann's recent rise came too late for selection for the U.S. team), though there are exceptions. World number-two GM Hikaru Nakamura has chosen not to play, as, for a second Olympiad in a row, has GM Alireza Firouzja, who together with GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave could have made the still strong French team one of the hot favorites. 

En route pour Budapest, team France! pic.twitter.com/44tJaoJfmm

— Sebastien Mazé (@mazetovic) September 10, 2024

It's the Women's section, however, where the absences hit hardest. Defending champion Ukraine is missing their top players, sisters Anna and Mariya Muzychuk, while China, also for reasons that haven't been publicly stated, has left the top-four players on the Women's rating list on the bench. Add in the absence of GM Koneru Humpy and the Russian players, and just Georgia's GM Nana Dzagnidze from the current Women's top-10 will be in action in Budapest.

6. Hotels, Visas, Politics: Will Anything Overshadow The Chess?

The logistics of the Chess Olympiad are always a challenge, with around 2,500 people, when team captains and arbiters are added in, needing to travel to and live in the host city. Multiple teams reported problems with hotels, including teams being split up if they requested single rooms. Complaints were raised about excessive costs, with some federations resorting to booking private accommodation. Many of those problems seem to have been resolved...

Thrilled to see the boys.🖤

Happy to not have to be sharing the rooms with them though. pic.twitter.com/gj98LfJhBL

— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) September 1, 2024

...but a more serious issue has been getting to Budapest in the first place. Visa and travel issues are the likely suspects for 20 teams in the Open and Women's sections being listed as "not paired" for round one. For the Open the teams are: Zambia, Uganda, Nigeria, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Nepal, Palestine, Libya, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Senegal, Somalia, Gambia, Mali, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Niger, Central African Republic, and the Refugees team. 

Teams can arrive late and still play most of the rounds, but it remains to be seen what the final number of participants will be.

The other issue that may weigh on the second week of the event is the meeting of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) General Assembly. This isn't a presidential election year, but the Kyrgystan Chess Federation has put forward a motion to restore the full status of the Russian and Belarussian Chess Federations, who are currently unable to host major FIDE events or play in the Olympiad (though Russian GM Vladimir Kramnik captains Uzbekistan, while GM Alexander Grischuk captains Iran).

The new President of the Ukrainian Chess Federation, Alexander Kamyshin, explained in a thread on X what he plans to do to try and stop the motion being approved.

7. The Olympiad Is Going To Be Huge 

While the Opening Ceremony was modest, the event itself is on a grand scale, with the games to be played in a huge space in the BOK Sports and Conference Center.

Players from all around the world will be taking part, as well as players of all ages. For instance, 80-year-old WIM Rani Hamid will be representing Bangladesh at her 20th Olympiad, while at the other end of the scale we have two nine-year-olds, England's WFM Bodhana Sivanandan...

...and Lebanon's Skye Attieh.    

After a sleepless night, Skye made it to Budapest for the #chess Olympiad. pic.twitter.com/tHtfxxEwUC

— wael attieh (@AttiehWael) September 10, 2024

It all kicks off Wednesday, with the team pairings already released. Top seed U.S.A. will take on Panama in round one, while India faces Morocco.

Olympiad Round 1 Team Pairings: Open 

In the Women's section top seed India takes on Jamaica, while Georgia faces the United Arab Emirates.

Olympiad Round 1 Team Pairings: Women

Will we get some early surprises, or will the favorites cruise on the opening day? We'll soon find out!

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:

• U.S. Top Seeds, India Close 2nd As Chess Olympiad Teams Announced