2024 Budapest Olympiad Round 2: Canada Draws Norway, Women’s Upset-Less

Tournament Information

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Lichess will be covering the Chess Olympiad with live camera feeds and rotating commentators! Make sure to tune in at 13:00 UTC for Round 3 with our hosts GM Illia Nyzhnyk and IM Eric Rosen.

Overview (Open)

The rating favorites generally won without too much difficulty, though Norway, who did not add GM Magnus Carlsen to its lineup today, drew Canada in a match where Norway outrated Canada on all four boards. With the rating differences between top teams and the teams they're facing getting narrower, there were no easy pairings for the favorites, and the top players had to work hard to get their wins in. Of course, along the way, many strong players drew their games because the opponents they were facing were seasoned GMs themselves — GM Ding Liren (2736) of China drew GM Cristobal Henriquez Villagra (2604) of Chile, GM Ferenc Berkes (2605) of Hungary drew IM Diego Saul Rodri Flores Quillas (2451) of Peru, and GM Javokhir Sindarov (2677) of Uzbekistan drew IM Hamed Wafa (2368) of Egypt. The Netherlands was even less fortunate as three draws meant that GM Jorden van Foreest’s win was the only result standing in the way of the Netherlands drawing, or losing, to Belgium. While some strong players had a long day at the office, Fabiano Caruana, who is now 2 points behind world #2, Hikaru Nakamura, won in exemplary fashion against 2580-rated Tin Jingyao.

The Top Teams

Despite Caruana's strong performance, the US only looked like it would narrowly scrape by as both GMs Robson and Dominguez had equal rook endgames, while GM Aronian sacrificed an exchange, resulting in a position that should not be worse for Black. Aronian was never worse either, though, and as he continued to apply pressure and create tactical threats, FM Zhenyong Jayden Wong's position collapsed under the duress of time pressure; in the meantime, Robson and Dominguez showed their endgame mastery and won their rook endgames, granting the US a 4-0 victory. GM Richard Rapport and GM Sanan Sjugirov also had smooth victories as their team won 3.5 to 0.5 against Peru — GM Ferenc Berkes had a slight advantage against IM Diego Saul Rodri Flores Quillas, but Flores Quillas defended well.

The match of the day, though, has to be Canada versus Norway as Canada, with an average rating of 2467.75, drew Norway, whose 2597 average is deflated by Carlsen's absence. On paper, Canada's draw is not such a big rating upset, but as team upsets have been rare so far, and especially because GM Johan-Sebastian Christiansen rejected a draw offer on move 12, Canada's draw is noteworthy. As GM Razvan Preotu was putting the finishing touches on his game against GM Elham Amar, GM Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux was pressing, trying to find any opportunity to inch his way through. His efforts were eventually rewarded as Christiansen went into a pawn-down queen endgame which was in fact holdable, though practically almost impossible to draw.

Are you going to resign?
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

The Biggest Upsets (Games)

Mohammed Alabdaljader (1677) of Kuwait seemed to be well-prepared against Guatemala's CM Ricardo M. Aragon Trujillo's (2057) Philidor Defense as he ensnared Black's king in the center and finished off with a powerful tactic:

FM Mustafokhuja Khusenkhojaev (2283) had an important victory against chess coach and streamer GM Arturs Neiksans (2571), which was pivotal for Tajikistan's team of underdogs to draw the all-GM Latvian team.

The Biggest Upsets (Teams)

France (vs. Paraguay), Serbia (vs. Estonia), Romania (vs. North Macedonia), Italy (vs. Kosovo), Denmark (vs. Bolivia), Austria (vs. United Arab Emirates), Argentina (vs. New Zealand), and Guatemala (vs. Kuwait) marginally won by a half point, while the Czech Republic (vs. Mongolia), Israel (vs. Ireland), Greece (vs. Venezuela), Latvia (vs. Tajikistan), and Djibouti (vs. Isle of Man) all drew their matches despite being rating favorites.

GM Maxime-Vachier Lagrave and GM Axel Bachmann discuss their game.
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

Brilliant Games

GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan played an attacking masterclass against GM Adham Fawzy of Egypt:

GM Marc`Andria Maurizzi of France also played a very strong attacking game against GM Jose Fernando Cubas of Paraguay:

GM Ahmad Al Khatib of Jordan ended his game against CM Taffin Khan of Guyana with a nice tactic.

Two knights cannot force checkmate, but with an extra pawn for the defending side, matters are different. Joel Gavarrete of Honduras shows us the way:

Round 3 Pairings

Both Bulgaria and Austria's rosters include no player under 2500, and Hungary B's* team includes no player under 2550. It will be a tough day for the favorites, but the rounds are only just beginning to get tougher.

*Hungary, being the host country, is allowed to field three teams — a main team, a B team, and a C team.

Overview (Women's)

The women’s section also saw a few close wins by the favorites as Ukraine narrowly beat Lithuania 2.5 to 1.5, while Georgia dropped a point to Montenegro as Salome Melia (2293) of Georgia lost to Nikolina Koljevic (2030) of Montenegro; on board 10, Kazakhstan also narrowly beat Finland.

The Top Teams

Already in round 2, the top 5 boards saw only two 4-0 victories: Poland's win against Brazil and China's win against Colombia. WIM Martina Korenova of the Czech Republic never gave IM Tania Sachdev any chances, while Ecuador's WIM Evelyn Wagenschuetz held a losing position against Hungary's WIM Julianna Terbe. However, one of the games of the day, which must have rattled Georgia, was Montenegro's WFM Nikolina Koljevic's win against IM Salome Melia of Georgia. Melia never got out of the opening:

IM Yuliia Osmak of Ukraine had a strong position against WIM Olena Martynkova of Lithuania, but matters slowly started slipping out of hand, and Martynkova eventually found a tactic which caused Osmak to blunder just a move later.

The Biggest Upsets (Games)

Lilja Bederdin (2065) of Finland defeated WIM Alua Nurman (2324) in a very complicated struggle where Bederdin was at some point worse, but the closed position she had on the board was extremely difficult to navigate:

The Biggest Upsets (Teams)

Some stronger teams barely won with a half point margin; otherwise, the first true upset occurred on board 44 as Liberia's team of slightly lower rated players held Panama to a draw.

Brilliant Games

GM Vantika Agrawal played an extremely sharp and accurate game against WGM Tereza Rodshtein:

Bat-Erdene Mungunzul of Mongolia showed how to play with the isolated queen's pawn as she attacked Monaco's Svetlana Berezovska's king:

Round 3 Pairings

In the Switzerland vs. India matchup, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk will face GM Harika Dronavalli in what will be an important game: can India improve on its game points score (India currently sits in 33rd because of the two draws in rounds 1 & 2)? Most of the favorites have a decent rating advantage against their opponents, but that won't hold for long as the tournament progresses.

Olympiad Miscellany

Angola's team came well-prepared against Switzerland.
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

So too did Malawi's and Jordan's teams
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com