2024 Budapest Olympiad Round 5: Vietnam Keeps Surging As India and China Win

Tournament Information

Information about the schedule, Lichess broadcast, and Lichess stream coverage can all be found in our preview article.

Lichess will be covering the Chess Olympiad with live camera feeds and rotating commentators: GM Illia Nyzhnyk, IM Eric Rosen, and FM Gauri Shankar! Make sure to tune in today September 16 at 13:00 UTC for Round 6 with our host GM Illia Nyzhnyk.

Overview (Open)

India continues to impress as it had no problems defeating Azerbaijan — in fact, its 3-1 margin over Azerbaijan could have been even higher. Meanwhile, Vietnam has kept up its form as it defeated Poland today. China and Hungary narrowly won against Spain and Ukraine, respectively, while the USA emerged victorious against Argentina. The world's live rating list is also of keen interest as GM Fabiano Caruana, GM Arjun Erigaisi, GM Gukesh Dommaraju, GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and GM Wei Yi have all won rating. Caruana is closing in on GM Magnus Carlsen after the latter drew against 2587-rated GM Mustafa Yilmaz, whose peak rating of 2665 was achieved just under a year ago in December 2023. Erigaisi is also approaching 2800, which would put him in an exclusive club that is made up of just 15 people in the history of chess.

You can find more results here.

The Top Teams

India has never been in trouble so far, and today was no different. Of course, the tournament is still just getting started, and India will have to prove its mettle against other Olympiad contenders, but, so far, team India is looking dominant. The day started off with Gukesh's crushing win against GM Aydin Suleymanli, where Gukesh's rare 5. Bg5 in the Italian clearly caught Suleymanli off guard. After Suleymanli went for an interesting though ultimately incorrect material imbalance, his decision to play 13...Kg7 baffled our commentator, FM Gauri Shankar. Suleymanli would go on to lose after superbly accurate play from Gukesh:

On board 3, Arjun Erigaisi showed that he is excellently prepared against the Dragon, which is of course a rare guest at the top level. Arjun essayed the Yugoslav Attack and put a positional bent on it as he got his bishop to c6 and showed that, sometimes, the endgame in the Sicilian favors White and not Black. Arjun's conversion was squeaky clean:

GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi could have gone for more had he put his queen one square forward against GM Shakriyar Mamedyarov, but that did not happen and he ended up drawing the game after tough defense by Mamedyarov.

Mamedyarov and Vidit agree to a draw.
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

In two matches which saw three draws and one win, both GM Richard Rapport of Hungary and GM Wei Yi of China were able to clinch victory for their teams. Rapport's win against GM Vasyl Ivanchuk was not just exciting to watch as any clash between these two extremely creative players is, but also showed sparks of King of the Hill:

GM Wei Yi played a very high level endgame against GM David Anton Guijarro:

GM Le Quang Liem of Vietnam was pressing against GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda of Poland, while his teammate, GM Ngoc Truong Son Nguyen, was proving that the Semi-Tarrasch Defense is a win for Black as he did just yesterday against GM Nodirbek Yakubboev:

Despite GM Tuan Minh Tran losing to Szymon Gumularz, Vietnam was still able to win as content creator GM Tuan Minh Le played a strong, slow, and gradual attack against GM Mateusz Bartel:

Even though GM Magnus Carlsen struggled to draw against GM Mustafa Yilmaz, Norway was still able to defeat Turkiye as GM Aryan Tari won against GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus and GM Frode Olav Olsen Urkedal defeated GM Vahap Sanal.

The USA also recovered well as it won 3-1 against Argentina, with endgames being the defining flavor of this particular match.

The Biggest Upsets (Games)

The biggest upset of the day was FM Daniel King Wai Hon Lam's win, mentioned in the next section. The second biggest upset saw Moakofi Notha of Botswana take down FM Daniel Kozusek of Wales in what was a lesson in tenacity:

Upsets (Teams)

Montenegro (vs. Germany), Iceland (vs. Bulgaria), Chile (vs. Hungary B), Philippines (vs. Slovenia), Puerto Rico (vs. New Zealand), Hong Kong, China (vs. Algeria), Eswatini (vs. Mauritania), and Antigua and Barbuda (vs. Maldives) scored upsets wins, while Liechtenstein (vs. Costa Rica), Botswana (vs. Wales), Mozambique (vs. Uganda), and Seychelles (vs. Isle of Man) scored upset draws. In particular, Hong Kong, China's win over Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda's win over Maldives, Liechtenstein's draw with Costa Rica, Botswana's draw with Wales, and Mozambique's draw with Uganda were quite strong upsets.

Hong Kong, China's FM Daniel King Wai Hon Lam's defensive effort against Algeria's IM Adlane Arab paid off:

Brilliant Games

IM Daniel Mieles Palau of Ecuador played an absolutely enchanting dark-square-intense game against Rurik Van Opstal of the Netherlands Antilles. The engine approves of almost the entire game for White!

Round 6 Pairings

The rising dark horse, Vietnam, will have to contend with the powerful and solid Chinese team. Meanwhile, India will face Hungary, the host country that has been perfect so far. GM Ding Liren vs. GM Le Quang Liem and GM Magnus Carlsen vs. GM Parham Maghsoodloo promise to be exciting games.

Overview (Women's)

India retained its perfect match score as it narrowly escaped losing to Kazakhstan — in terms of match score, that is, for GM Harika Dronavalli was at one point much better against IM Bibisara Assaubayeva, while GM Vaishali Rameshbabu and IM Vantika Agrawal were always much better against their opponents. Georgia, too, narrowly escaped a loss, but that was again not a good representation of what was going on as one player, GM Nino Batsiashvili, was losing, but IM Lela Javakhishvili and GM Bella Khotenashvili were winning. Armenia caused a small rating upset by defeating China, and Mongolia did the same as it beat the United States of America.

You can find more results here.

The Top Teams

3...Nxe4 in the Petrov, which could, if one is not careful, initiate a trap many beginners have fallen for, is a very rare guest at the top level. Is that the case because it is a bad opening? Certainly top players are choosing the main line Petrov because it is more rich, but 3...Nxe4 in and of itself is not terrible. In fact, Harika's choice unsettled Assaubayeva, who soon found herself in a lost position as she weakened squares; eventually, her king could not find safety in the center of the board. Incredibly, with a defensive rook lift and inaccurate play by Harika, Assaubayeva was able to get back into the game. As Assaubayeva's knight started dancing around the board, Harika was soon lost:

Thankfully for Harika, though, her teammates were there to bail her out as Vaishali had incredibly piece activity:

Vantika won a pawn, but she had doubled pawns on the kingside and a greatly weakened king that was under siege. Vantika played phenomenally, however, and proved that Black had no compensation. First, she defended; then, to realize her advantage, she sacrificed a piece to get a horde of pawns going and never looked back:

Carlsen observing Vantika's game
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

Similar to its eponymous practitioner, the Karpov Variation of the Caro-Kann can be quite solid, but when Black gets an endgame in the Caro-Kann, White should be extra careful to not start becoming worse. IM Lilit Mkrtchian was prepared to channel her inner Tigran Petrosian as she outplayed GM Jiner Zhu in a technical endgame:

In terms of flashiness and tactical beauty, IM Anna M. Sargsyan won an absolutely swashbuckling game against IM Miaoyi Lu:

The Biggest Upsets (Games)

Wei Le Gladys Koh of Singapore defeated WIM Jenny Astrid Chirivi C of Colombia after the latter blundered a double attack:

Tanzania's Zahabiyah Ebrahim's win against Zuzana Kovacova of Bermuda, though, was an even bigger rating upset:

Upsets (Teams)

Peru (vs. England), Uganda (vs. Ireland), and Tanzania (vs. Bermuda) scored upset wins, while Kyrgyzstan (vs. Denmark), Jordan (vs. North Macedonia), Botswana (vs. Bangladesh), Thailand (vs. New Zealand), Kenya (vs. El Salvador), Morocco (vs. Dominican Republic), Liberia (vs. Trinidad & Tobago), and Eswatini (vs. Bahamas) scored upset draws.

Tanzania's win was particularly impressive as Ebrahim's win had to be supported by her teammates winning as well.

Brilliant Games

IM Sophie Milliet of France hunted Iran's WFM Tannaz Azali's king in the center, on the kingside, and on the queenside!

Round 6 Pairings

Armenia will have a tough test against team India, but after Armenia's win against China in round 5, they will surely be confident. Georgia will take on Mongolia, who is also coming fresh off a not-so-expected victory.

Olympiad Tactics

The Turkish chess trainer and FM Nazmi Can Doğan alias @NaSil is taking tactical snippets from the Olympiad:

Interview

Director of operations at Lichess, Theo Wait, caught up with CM Md Omar Ak Hafizon Pg as they talked about the chess scene in Brunei and his tournament.

Olympiad Miscellany

Team Vanuatu, who has been a member of FIDE for just one year.