India’s Gukesh in action in Round 2 of the FIDE Chess Olympiad 2024. (PHOTO: FIDE/Anna Shtourman)
The fourth round of the Chess Olympiad in Budapest experienced massive tremors as some of the top teams slipped up while India consolidated their position at the top of the standings. The Indian players also saw their ratings rise in the live ratings.
After the fourth round there are only eight teams left in the Chess Olympiad standings that have eight match points: India, Spain, China, Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Poland, Hungary, and Ukraine (listed according to tiebreaks).
India defeated Serbia 3.5-0.5 on Saturday with Gukesh (vs GM Alexandr Predke), Arjun Erigaisi (vs GM Aleksandar Indjic) and Vidit Gujrathi (vs GM Velimir Ivic) all winning their matches while Praggnanandhaa had accepted a draw on board 2 against GM Alexey Sarana.
Gukesh ground out a clinical win after nearly six hours of chess. His win saw him vault into the 5th spot in the FIDE live ratings (which are updated in real-time as compared to FIDE’s published ratings which are updated at the end of every month).
Interactive: How Gukesh defeated Serbian GM Alexandr Predke
In the live ratings, Gukesh is now rated at 2772.7, which puts him one spot behind compatriot Arjun Erigaisi, who holds on to fourth spot.
India’s Gukesh in action in Round 4 of the FIDE Chess Olympiad 2024 against Serbian GM Alexandr Predke. (PHOTO: FIDE/Anna Shtourman)
Arjun Erigaisi is rated 2785.0 in the live ratings. Thanks to his performances at the Olympiad, Praggnanandhaa now has a live rating of 2753.4, which puts him in the 10th spot in the live rankings.
Interactive: How Arjun Erigaisi defeated Serbian GM Aleksandar Indjic
This means there are now three Indian chess players in the top 10 of the live ratings. Chess legend Viswanathan Anand, who is India’s first ever grandmaster, holds the 11th spot in the FIDE live ratings.
USA, Uzbekistan upset at FIDE Olympiad
The open section of the FIDE Olympiad on Satruday saw massive upsets as the top seeded American team was handed defeat by the Ukrainians in the fourth round while Uzbekistan, the defending champions at the Olympiad, also lost to Vietnam.
In USA’s case, they are missing the services of their top ranked player Hikaru Nakamura, who excused himself saying there was no incentive for him to play at the team event since there are no points on offer for the Candidates cycle.
Team USA decided to rest the veteran player Levon Aronian in the fourth round.
While Fabiano Caruana claimed an easy win on the top board for USA by defeating Andrei Volokitin, Leinier Dominguez and Ruslan Ponomariov drew on board three. But Wesley So was handed a crushing defeat by the veteran Vasyl Ivanchuk, a player who is from Viswanathan Anand’s era.
Wesley So was handed a crushing defeat by the Ukraine veteran Vasyl Ivanchuk. (PHOTO: FIDE/Michal Walusza)
Ukraine’s Anton Korobov then took down Ray Robson, who was slotted in in the absence of Aronian by USA.
When Korbov was asked later about Ukraine’s chances in the tournament he joked: “There are seven rounds to go; it’s going to be a disaster! The average age of our team is like 100 years old.”
Uzbekistan also suffered disaster in round 4. They were handed defeat by the Vietnamese team. The Uzbek team had not lost a single match in the 2022 Olympiad, saw Le Tuan Minh (2564) defeat Javokhir Sindarov (2677), and then Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (2633) prevail over Nodirbek Yakubboev (2666).
