Olympiad 2024, open: India is a master!

22/09/2024 – Two years ago, in Chennai, India had the opportunity to win gold – Gukesh, already on the first board, became the unfortunate hero in the penultimate round. Overwhelmed by his desire to win, he failed to secure the draw that would have guaranteed his team top spot on the podium; he even ended up losing the game, leaving Uzbekistan (gold) and Armenia (silver) to take the spoils. This year, Gukesh repeated his feat, but without any fuss or muss, as his team, with Erigaisi also imperious in the 3rd round (2nd best Elo performance of the tournament behind Gukesh), only managed a draw against… the Uzbeks (bronze medal this year) – which goes to show that the young Indian wolves have learned their lesson: in fact, this draw in the 9th round practically guaranteed them the final gold, so this time they took no chances! The USA, seeded n°1, keep up appearances. Disappointing as they were two years ago, they came back at the end and managed to win the silver medal in extremis thanks to a victory over China in the last round. The Middle Kingdom, fourth in the final, might well have been in contention for first place had they not been forced to field the ever-disappointing world champion on the first board. Apart from a defeat by Quang Liem Le, Ding Liren was content to line up seven lacklustre draws – his last game against Caruana being the paradigmatic example… -so feverish, he didn’t deign to line up against Gukesh in the 7th round. While the Indian approaches the 2800 mark Elo, the Chinese player has dropped below 2730. All he can hope for now is that the psychological dimension, so important in this kind of duel, will work in his favor when he puts his crown back on the line in December… | Photo: FIDE.