2024 Budapest Olympiad Round 1: Upsets and Would-Be Upsets

Tournament Information

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

Overview (Open)

Visa issues made it difficult for some teams to make it to the Olympiad; we hope that these issues will be resolved and the missing teams will be able to play. In particular, the refugees team, which is participating for the first time, is not playing because of Visa difficulties. As is usual in Olympiads, the top players prefer to conserve energy, so they don't play the first game. Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Dommaraju Gukesh, and Ding Liren were not playing today. An action-packed day saw upsets and would-be upsets, but, overall, the top teams prevailed.

The Top Teams

The top 10 teams won without too much difficulty, though some teams did drop half a point. Wesley So (2752) of the US drew Roberto Carlos Sanchez Alvarez (2376) of Panama, Nodirbek Yakubboev (2666) of Uzbekistan drew Quinn Cabralis (2169) of Trinidad & Tobago, Aryan Tari (2642) of Norway drew Hongjin Ahn (2251) of South Korea, Dmitrij Kollars (2659) of Germany drew Fy Antenaina Rakotomaharo (2440) of Madagascar, David W L Howell (2677) of England drew Raymond Song (2503) of Chinese Taipei, and Sina Movahed (2528) of Iran drew Mohan Kavin (1997) of Malaysia. Upsets are the spice of Olympiads, and the first round of the 2024 Budapest Olympiad did not disappoint at all as a host of upsets and would-be upsets occurred.

The Biggest Upsets (Games)

The biggest upset of this round has to be 17-year-old Anas Khwaira holding Shakhriyar Mamedyarov to a draw from a better position. Mamedyarov was forced to sacrifice the exchange, after which, as Anas recounts, Mamedyarov offered a draw. Anas knows the age-old rule Rosen mentioned, though, and declined the draw, only accepting the draw much later when he was in time trouble. A phenomenal result for a young player and certainly one he will cherish for a long time to come.

Mamedyarov was not pleased!
Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com

There were many other drawn upsets.

• Nodirbek Yakubboev (2666) of Uzbekistan drew Quinn Cabralis (2169) of Trinidad & Tobago (game)
• Aryan Tari (2642) of Norway drew Hongjin Ahn (2251) of South Korea (game)
• Sina Movahed (2528) of Iran drew Mohan Kavin (1997) of Malaysia (game)
• Laurent Fressinet (2616) of France drew Maximiliano Rocha (2156) of Nicaragua (game)
• Martin Petrov (2536) of Bulgaria drew Amer Karim (2081) of Pakistan (game)
• Ruben Felgaer (2563) of Argentina drew Alan Ormsby (1914) of Isle of Man (game)
• Ivan Schitco (2527) of Moldova drew Davidson Gabriel (2043) of Haiti (game)
• Li Min Peng (2514) of Switzerland drew Oluka Robert Mcligeyo (1990) of Kenya (game)
• Sebastian Lukas Kostolansky (2405) of Slovakia drew Hamood Al Busaidi (1881) of Oman (game)
• Mher Hovhannisyan (2414) of Belgium drew Abdellahi Khaled Abdellahi (1894) of Mauritania (game)
• Jorge Viterbo Ferreira (2535) of Portugal drew Shuaau Muhammed (2052) of Maldives (game)
• Alexander Baburin (2376) of Ireland drew Rudr Prasad (1777) of Fiji (game)
• Grzegorz Toczek (2301) of Wales drew Aden Omar Omar (1779) of Djibouti (game)

Two notable upset victories, where untitled players beat grandmasters, included Ahmed Abdullah S Alrehaili's (2117) (of Saudi Arabia) win against Bobby Cheng (2588) of Australia and Nathaniel Mathurin's (1982) (of Saint Lucia) win against Helgi Dam Ziska (2553) of Faroe Islands. Joao Farisse (1851) of Mozambique also defeated Jens Albert Ramsdal (2328) of Denmark (game), and Abner Farquhar (1678) of Antigua and Barbuda emerged victorious against David Alejandro Cabezas Solano (2248) of Costa Rica (game).

Honorable Mentions

Levon Aronian (2729) is one of the most creative chess players of all time and is ranked #4 on the highest ever classical ratings list; however, sometimes his genius comes to bite him as he was simply a piece down against Andre Mendez Machado (2122) of Panama. Chess superfans might remember that Aronian was also losing in round 1 of the 2022 Chennai Olympiad, though he did end up drawing that game. He was able to do better this year and even won his lost game after he castled on opposite sides of the board and complicated the game.

Arjun Erigaisi (2778) was also losing at some point against his opponent, Jacques Elbilia (2343) of Morocco. He did find a way to turn matters around, though.

For other vastly underrated players, many of them managed to make it to a dry, equalish endgame against their very strong opponents. Unfortunately for them, they could not manage to hold the position. A few of these games:

• Anish Giri (2724) of the Netherlands against Amro El Jawich (2296) of Lebanon (game)
• Frederik Svane (2640) of Germany against Dylan Rakotomaharavo (2078) of Madagascar (game)
• David Navara (2681) of Czech Republic against Konstantinos Michaelides (2297) of Cyprus (game)

Amro El Jawich against Anish Giri
Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE

Lichess streamer Mafaaz Khalid (2069) (Art-Vega) of Pakistan was also equal for a long time against Ivan Cheparinov of Bulgaria, but ultimately lost.

The Biggest Upsets (Teams)

There were no upsets in terms of team scores. The favorites at worst scored 3 wins and 1 loss; the rating favorites never lost and there was no 2.5/1.5 victory — except for Vanuatu, whose team of unrated players won 2.5/1.5 against the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This lack of team upsets is to be expected as in the first round, the stronger teams are paired with the weaker ones, so vast ratings mismatches occur.

Brilliant Games

Johan-Sebastian Christiansen of Norway sacrificed his queen against Junhyeok Lee of South Korea.

https://lichess.org/study/embed/XJ8g9CkA/d4PXeZto#0

Haik M. Martirosyan of Armenia played a powerful attack against Colin Pace of Malta.

https://lichess.org/study/embed/XJ8g9CkA/AFOkvgGW#0

Round 2 Pairings

The pairings are not at all easy for the top teams, as, for example, Singapore has two GMs, an FM, and a CM, while Peru has a 2600 GM, two IMs, and a 2390-rated untitled player.

Overview (Women's)

In the women's section, there were even less upsets both in terms of game and team results. Similar to the top rated players in the Open section, Nana Dzagnidze, Harika Dronavalli, and Alina Kashlinskaya also took a rest day.

The Top Teams

On the top 10 boards, all rating-favorite teams except India and Ukraine won with a 4-0 score. India's Vantika Agrawal (2370) was held to a draw by Raehanna Brown (1910) of Jamaica (game), while Ukraine's Anna Ushenina couldn't score a full point against Aleksandra Samaganova of Kyrgyzstan (game).

The Biggest Upsets (Games)

Apart from Abera's win against Schloffer (mentioned in the next section)

https://lichess.org/study/embed/E4dEBTtD/gUUef59J#0

, there was also Kuwait's Aisha Alazemi's (1547) win against Lili Toth (2105) of Hungary

https://lichess.org/study/embed/E4dEBTtD/IG75WqDB#0

The Biggest Upsets (Teams)

It takes a while to find the first favorites who scored lower than a 3.5/4: on board 30, Austria scored a 3-1 because Jasmin-Denise Schloffer (2168) lost to Mekdes Demssie Abera (1593) of Ethiopia. Overall, the favorites scored very well and there were no team upsets. Liberia did come close, though, as their team only marginally lost 1.5-2.5 against the much higher rated Brazilian team.

Brilliant Games

Twin London games show the attacking potential of the much maligned London:

https://lichess.org/study/embed/HWyodd7c/2R3NZTqo#0

https://lichess.org/study/embed/HWyodd7c/WT2XpyDh#0

Round 2 Pairings