46th Olympiad: USA 4th in Both Sections, Medals for Yip, Lee, and Aronian

Scenes from the closing ceremony in Samarkand. (Photos courtesy FIDE/Rafal Oleksiewicz)

Both American teams finished one spot short of the podium when the 46^th FIDE Chess Olympiad came to an end Sunday afternoon in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan won its second gold (in four years) in the Open, finishing two points ahead of India and Germany.

The winning Uzbekistan 1 team. (Photo courtesy FIDE/Michal Walusza)

China won its seventh women’s Olympiad, and first in eight years, with a 20/22 score, two points ahead of Kazakhstan. Five teams, including the U.S., tied for third with 17/22 scores, and India won bronze on tiebreaks.

The victorious China team. (Photo courtesy FIDE/Rafal Oleksiewicz)

Enjoy highly insightful analysis from GM Luka Budisavljevic, whose understanding of subtle positional factors turns these grandmaster games into something even the casual fan can make sense of.

Open

In the Open, USA had a chance to reshape the race for gold on Friday in a gritty match against the eventual gold medalists.

All eyes were Uzbekistan – USA at the start of Round 9. (Photo courtesy FIDE/Michal Walusza)

A relatively short draw on Board 4 between GM Levon Aronian and GM Mukhiddin Madaminov was first to finish, and it turned out to be the only quiet game of the round.

Nodirbek Abdusattorov posed too many problems for Caruana in a tough endgame. (Photos courtesy FIDE/Rafal Oleksiewicz)

On Board 1, GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov forced GM Fabiano Caruana to defend an increasingly difficult endgame as the clocks ticked down before the time control. While Caruana missed his last drawing chance on move 40, already the position was getting away from him, writes Budisavljevic:

While GM Javokhir Sindarov has been playing as well as anybody in the world over the past year, GM Wesley So came prepared with a great opening choice and, despite Sindarov’s impressive efforts, never gave the young Uzbek a real chance of getting back into the game.

Wesley So played a brilliant game against Javokhir Sindarov in the crucial match against Uzbekistan. (Photos courtesy FIDE/Rafal Oleksiewicz)

Captain John Donaldson oversees the start of Niemann and So's games. (Photos courtesy FIDE/Rafal Oleksiewicz)

The final game to finish was between GM Hans Niemann and GM Nodirbek Yakubboev. A spirited pawn sac from Niemann was totally justified, but the resulting position turned out to be less intuitive than it appeared from afar.

Hans Niemann played quite accurately and energetically in the opening before finding himself in a difficult spot. Even in the endgame, he gave Yakubboev quite a challenge down a piece. (Photos courtesy FIDE/Rafal Oleksiewicz)

Still, after a mistake from Yakubboev, Niemann still had dreams of drawing the game and the match:

Yakubboev is congratulated by coach Rustam Kasimdzhanov. (Photos courtesy FIDE/Rafal Oleksiewicz)

The loss sent USA down to a tie for 11th place with a 13/18 score and just two rounds remaining. The best the Americans could hope for was a strong 4/4 finish and a few friendly results paving the way to a podium spot.

Indeed, with 3–1 wins over Greece and Turkiye, respectively, to conclude the event, USA’s 17/22 score came close to an overall medal. With a Germany tie or loss to the Netherlands on Sunday, USA would have finished tied for third with the best tiebreaks. Instead, after GM Matthias Bluebaum secured a 2½–1½ win for the Germans, USA finished tied for fourth. With the best tiebreaks, the Americans therefore won gold for Category A, as explained in Section 4.6.2 of the FIDE Olympiad regulations.

Levon Aronian, pictured here during Round 9, was a reliable force on Board 4. (Photo courtesy FIDE/Rafal Oleksiewicz)

Aronian also won an individual bronze for his 8/10 performance on Board 4. His Round 10 win showed his unique mixture of creativity and fundamental understanding:

With its win over USA, Uzbekistan improved to a 16/18 score entering the final two rounds. It looked like Germany would keep pace, however, despite the difficult pairing against India. The match was tied with one game to go, and GM Alexander Donchenko appeared to be coasting against the World Champion:

The massive turnaround instead bumped India up into a three-way tie for second along with Armenia and, funnily enough, Uzbekistan 2! With a one-point lead, Uzbekistan 1 officially controlled its destiny. With a 3½–½ win over Armenia and a 2½–1½ win over Ukraine to close out the event, the race for gold was indeed never in doubt.

India then dashed Uzbekistan 2’s dreams of a majority podium finish with a 3½–½ win to take outright second place with a round to go. A 2–2 tie against Hungary allowed Germany to catch the leaders with its win against the Netherlands, but India persevered for silver with better tiebreaks.

Still, a podium finish is tremendous for Germany, which finished the event with wins over USA and Uzbekistan and within a few moves of a win over India.

Women’s

After its close loss in Round 8 to Armenia, USA entered Friday’s ninth trailing 17 other teams. The dream of a second consecutive medal was beginning to fade, but all USA could do was win its remaining matches and see where the cards fell.

Carissa Yip (L) had an impressive performance in her first Olympiad as the top board. (Photo courtesy FIDE/Michal Walusza)

Against Canada, Israel, and Romania, the Americans won 3–1, 4–0, and 3–1, respectively, to reach a 17/22 score. Across the final three rounds, IMs Carissa Yip and Alice Lee notched a combined 5½/6 score on the top two boards. Even against serious resistance, the friendly rivals showed why they are the future of this team!

Yip followed her gold medal performance on Board 2 in 2024 by winning silver in her first year as the team’s Board 1, scoring 8/10. Lee won a silver medal on Board 4 in 2024, and, despite being bumped up two boards, she outdid herself with an undefeated 8½/10 score and a gold medal for her showing on Board 2.

Left: Board 1 silver medalists Erdogmus Yagiz Kaan (TUR) and Carissa Yip. Right: Board 2 gold medalists Wei Yi (CHI) and Alice Lee. (Photos courtesy FIDE/Michal Walusza)

Left: Board 1 silver medalists Erdogmus Yagiz Kaan (TUR) and Carissa Yip. Right: Board 2 gold medalists Wei Yi (CHI) and Alice Lee. (Photos courtesy FIDE/Michal Walusza)

Entering the final round, China led with 18/20, ahead of Kazakhstan with 17/20, and India, Poland, and Vietnam with 16/20 each. The key pairings were China – Vietnam and India – Georgia. With an upset victory, Vietnam would catch China at 18/20 and any result from the Kazakhstan – Poland match would put a third team at 18/20 (or 19/20 with a Kazakhstan win).

With an unflinching 3–1 win, China clinched gold and turned attention to India – Georgia. With a tie against Poland, Kazakhstan clinched at least a share of second place, but India would claim silver on tiebreaks with a win against Georgia. But if India did not win, USA would claim a share of third, but here’s where tiebreaks come into play. A Georgia victory would give USA the best tiebreaks of every time tied for third (including Georgia), whereas a Georgia tie would give India and its better tiebreaks a share of third instead.

After GM Humpy Koneru defeated GM Nana Dzagnidze with a quick mating attack, an India victory appeared to be the most likely result. But then IM Savitha Shri found herself in a losing position on Board 4 when a shocking blunder by GM Divya Deshmukh forced her resignation:

IM Meri Arabidze reached the time control with serious winning chances against Savitha, but on move 41 she allowed her opponent to equalize the game and the match, giving India a share of third and, therefore, bronze on tiebreaks.

As in the Open, USA's result earned it the Category A gold medal as the top-finishing team (outside of the overall top three) from the top quintile.

The category A gold medalists! From left: Irina Krush, coach Liem Le, Tatev Abrahamyan, Rose Atwell, Yip, Lee, and captain Melik Khachiyan. (Photo courtesy FIDE/Michal Walusza)

Category Prizes, Board Prizes, and Norms

USA won gold for Category A in both events. In the Open, Vietnam, Ecuador, Pakistan, and Qatar won gold in categories B through E, respectively. In the women's, those awards went (in order) to Croatia, Sri Lanka, Ghana, and the Maldives.

For board prizes in the Open, Abdusattorov won gold for his undefeated 8½/11 Board 1 performance that anchored his Uzbek squad. GM Wei Yi (pictured above with Lee) won top Board 2 honors for his undefeated 7½/10 showing. Like Abdusattorov, Germany's GM Frederik Svane notched an undefeated 8½/11 score, earning Board 3 gold. With an undefeated 8/10 score, GM Ihor Samunenkov won the Board 4 gold for Ukraine. Hungary's GM Gleb Dudin won gold as the best alternate, scoring 8/10 with seven wins.

In the Women's event, China's GM Zhu Jiner won gold for her lossless 7/9 showing on the top board. On Board 3, Zhu's teammate IM Lu Miaoyi had perhaps the most outstanding score of the event, going an undefeated 9½/11! WIM Elnaz Kaliakhmet anchored her Kazakhstan squad's rush to silver, scoring 7½/9 with seven wins on Board 4. IM Savitha Shri for India won top Board 5 honors with a 9/10 score that included her aforementioned clutch draw in Round 11.

According to preliminary calculations, three players earned GM norms and five earned IM norms in the Open. Two of the GM norms came from the same team, with Vietnam's 17-year-old IM Gia Huy Banh and 20-year-old IM Quoc Hy Nguyen, playing Board 2 and Board 3, respectively, both earning norms. At age 30, Venezuela's Felix Jose Ynojosa Aponte was the final GM norm recipient.

Again according to preliminary calculations, 17 players earned norms in the Women's event, including four IM norms and five WGM norms. England's 11-year-old FM Bodhana Sivanandan earned her second IM norm, as did Ukraine's 16-year-old WFM Anastasiia Hnatyshyn, Uzbekistan's 17-year-old WGM Afruza Khamdamova, and Armenia's 22-year-old WGM Mariam Mkrtchyan.

While Yip finished with a 2601 performance rating, she was not eligible for a GM norm because she only played two GM opponents, one short of the required three.