We’ve seen quite a lot of fantastic chess in the first seven rounds of the tournament. Round 8 also did not disappoint. After this Round, we are moving into the final stages, with only three rounds left. Strap in!
Be sure to check out our prior coverage of the event:
Also, be sure to check out our Olympiad course, featuring tactics and a breakdown of each day’s most important happenings, exclusive for Chessable Pro members.
Day 8 of the Chennai Olympiad was New in Chess day! We have some special gifts for visitors to the Chessable booth, so come along and get a free magazine!
We managed to catch 3 of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour commentaries at the board but don’t worry, they’ll be back commentating soon.
Yesterday we recorded some interviews with the players.
Among them was the Queen of Chess, Judit Polgar.
She talks about her endgame course, how she was already super strong in endgames at a tender age of 8, whether fearsome attacks or endgame grinds gave her more wins, how today’s youngsters are gaining 2700+ in rating at an early age, and finally… how Chessable has dramatically changed how chess knowledge is being shared by top GMs and IMs. Check out her full interview here.
And we also made 8-year-old Randa Seder’s dream come true by introducing her to Judit…
What happened in the games?
India 2 had a spectacular result against no.1 seed the USA, winning 3:1. Gukesh D is on India 2’s team and helped them to the victory. He is now on a spectacular 8/8 points for the tournament, something almost unheard of.
Armenia is the team to beat now, having defeated the first India team.
Here are the standings after Round 8:
Gukesh guts Caruana for 8/8
Gukesh had what was his most impressive performance against the one-time contender for the world championship Fabiano Caruana of the USA.
He was worse out of the opening, but as we have seen in this tournament, the teenager is a fighter. He battled against Caruana with the Black pieces to get a win. Caruana has now fallen out of the top-ten players in the world.
Caruana’s last move 31.Nc5 gave a -2.1 advantage to Gukesh.
Nihal settles for a draw against Aronian
Again in the India 2 and USA matchup, we saw Sarin Nihal against Levon Aronian.
Aronian was worse in the final position, but due to time pressure, Nihal accepted a draw.
Here was the final position after 35 moves.
Dominguez’s blunder
Lenier Dominguez needed to secure a win for the USA if they were to have any chance against the young upstarts of the Indian 2 team.
However, move 40 by Dominguez, Nd5? gave Raunak Sadwhani a winning advantage.
After 41.Qe5+!, White is completely winning. The game went on for only five more moves.
Brute Uzbek force
Uzbekistan has been another breakout team in this tournament with a lot of young talent.
In the following matchup of Nodirbek Yakubboev vs. Matthias Bluebaum of Germany, the young Uzbek was able to break through for a win.
45.Qe2!
Now 45…Re8 46.Be5, 47.Bf6, 48.Be7, and there is no way to defend the e6 pawn.
