India win Olympiad gold as new generation dominates in Budapest

A new generation is taking over at the top of world chess. India captured the gold medals at the 188-team Olympiad in Budapest last Sunday with a dominating performance by Gukesh Dommaraju, 18, and Arjun Erigaisi, 21. Gukesh, who challenges for the world crown in November, is now up to No 5 in the live ratings, while Erigaisi is No 3 and close to the 2800 rating points landmark.   

Away from the board, the Fide General Assembly voted to maintain sanctions against Russia and Belarus which allow their players to compete only as individuals under a neutral Fide flag. Magnus Carlsen, who rarely gets involved in chess politics, made an intervention when he was awarded a Fide trophy as the all-time best player. First, he said: “In my opinion, Garry Kasparov has had a better chess career than I have. I understand why I got this award, but he is more deserving.” Then he added: “I would say, at least in Garry’s honour, I am sure that he would take the opportunity to advise against reinstating the Russian and Belarus Chess Federations, so that is what I would do as well.”

Final leading Olympiad scores were India 21/22 match points, United States 17, Uzbekistan 17. China, Serbia and Armenia also totalled 17 points, but had worse tiebreaks. The US took team silver, and the unanswered question remained whether they would have outscored India if the world No2 Hikaru Nakamura had travelled to Budapest instead of opting to prefer his streaming career.

England finished 20th on 15/22. The eight-time British champion Michael Adams, now 51, was the team’s top scorer on an unbeaten 6/9.   

India also won the Women’s Olympiad with 18/22. Kazakhstan, also with 18 but an inferior tiebreak, took silver and the United States won bronze on 17, while England finished 27th on 14/22. Jovanka Houska was England’s best scorer on 8/10.

Gukesh, who won the top board gold, and Erigaisi, who won the board three gold, scored at a pace that even Carlsen could not match. The Norwegian’s ambition of achieving Olympiad gold and eliminating one of the few gaps in his brilliant career record remains unfulfilled, as he had to settle for top board bronze.

India’s superiority was reminiscent of the legendary USSR teams of the 1950s and 1960s, which were packed with world champions and challengers and rarely lost a game, let alone a match. In Gukesh and Erigaisi, India have what could well prove to be the Botvinnik and Smyslov or Karpov and Kasparov of the 2020s and 2030s.     

Hungarian grandmaster Péter Lékó put it well: “India’s way too strong. They are very young, very determined, brilliantly prepared, and also have fantastic chemistry, so it’s a very tough team for anyone to beat”.

Gukesh and Erigaisi are a pair whose strategically profound and technically accurate styles are a test for the strongest opposition. In an extensive interview for New in Chess, Erigaisi revealed that his father is a neurosurgeon and his sister a medical student, but that his own interests were different, so that he dropped out of college after a year when his chess talent became obvious.

His sponsor Quantbox, a Singapore trading company, pays for his full-time coach Rustam Kasimdzhanov, who previously trained Vishy Anand and Caruana. Erigaisi’s mature strategic style is ambitious with both colours. In round five at Budapest he instructively defused the dangerous Dragon Sicilian and reached a winning rook endgame.

China, which won gold on its last appearance, was handicapped by the continuing poor form of the reigning world champion Ding Liren, who has now dropped out of the world top 20 in the live ratings.

The chess elite will come to London next month when the franchise-based six-team Tech Mahindra Global League is played at Friends House, Euston, from October 3 to 12. World champions Carlsen and Anand, world No 2 Nakamura, and the double world title challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi will all lead teams. The Olympiad hero, Erigaisi, is also competing.

The time limit is rapid chess, 20 minutes per player per game, with the added bonus for spectators that there is no per-move increment, implying some exciting time scrambles. 

Daily and season tickets are available from the Chess & Bridge shop in Baker Street, London, or online at chess.co.uk.

Puzzle 2591

Arjun Erigaisi v Shamsiddin Vokhidov, India v Uzbekistan, Budapest Olympiad 2024. 

White to move and win. India had won their previous eight matches, but world No3 Erigaisi failed to find the right move for a ninth. Can you do better?

Click here for solution