Chess Olympiad 2024 Full Guide: From FIDE tournament format to seeds, everything you need to know about 45th Chess Olympiad

45th FIDE Chess Olympiad 2024: The 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest will see the Indian teams battling it out for gold medals in both open and women’s categories.

Ahead of the first round, here’s a full guide to the most prestigious team event in the sport:

Chess Olympiad 2024 Venue

The 45th Chess Olympiad is being held in Hungary’s capital Budapest from September 10 to 23 at the BOK Csarnok events venue. The Olympiad is held every two years with the previous edition being held in Chennai.

Time control for each game at Chess Olympiad

The time control for each game is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move 1.

Chess Olympiad 2024 Rules and Format

Because there are 196 teams competing in the open section and 184 in the women’s section, the tournament will be played in the Swiss System, which will have 11 rounds. Each team and player will get 11 matches in the Olympiad.

How does the Swiss System work?

The Swiss system is used where there are too many teams or players to facilitate a full round-robin tournament. In it, after the first round of the tournament, a team that has won plays another team that won its first-round clash with a similar score. Meanwhile, a team that lost its first round plays against another team that suffered a defeat with a similar score. This keeps continuing till the 11th round. Since India, China, USA and Uzbekistan are the top four teams in the open section, India could possibly play these teams in the second half of the tournament.

Points system

A win gets two match points, a draw scores one and a loss none. The team with the most number of match points in the final standings is declared Olympiad champion.

Chess Olympiad 2024 Teams

Team composition

In both sections, teams are made up of four players plus one reserve. Each team also has a captain, who may also be one of the players or the reserve. The team captain can decide which player is rested for a round, which is when the reserve player gets to play.

India’s open team

Chess legend and the country’s first Grandmaster, Viswanathan Anand will not be a part of the open team. But the Indian team has a formidable look nevertheless, with Arjun Erigaisi (ranked No 4 in the world with a rating of 2778), D Gukesh (ranking of 7 and rating of 2764), R Praggnanandhaa (world ranking of 12 and rating of 2750), Vidit Gujrathi (ranking of 24 and rating of 2720), and P Harikrishna (ranking of 41 and rating of 2686). The team is captained by Srinath Narayanan.

Chess Olympiad 2024: Vidit Gujrathi, Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi and Pentala Harikrishna are part of Team India at the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest. (Express photo by Partha Paul)

Indian women’s team

With India’s top-rated women’s player Koneru Humpy opting to sit out, the Indian women’s team comprises Rameshbabu Vaishali, Harika Dronavalli, Vantika Agrawal, Tania Sachdev and Divya Deshmukh. They’re now the top seeds. GM Abhijit Kunte is the team captain.

Top seeds at the Chess Olympiad

In the open section, USA are the top-seeded team while India are the second seeds. Teams from the USA, India, and China stand out as rating favourites, with the average rating of all team members exceeding 2700. Uzbekistan is also a formidable side.

The USA’s roster has several players who started their careers playing for a different flag. Their average rating is an impressive 2757 with players like Fabiano Caruana (who held dual citizenship in United States and Italy and played for Italy for many years before switching allegiance in 2015), Wesley So (originally from the Philippines, became a US citizen in 2021), Leinier Dominguez (a five-time Cuban Chess Champion who completed his transfer to the United States in 2018), Levon Aronian (switched over from Armenia in 2021), and reserve player Ray Robson (born in the US island of Guam). The team could have been even more formidable if USA’s number one player Hikaru Nakamura (2802) or current USA number five Hans Niemann (2733) had been competing. The USA has an impressive Olympiad record, having participated in 40 Olympiads and won 20 medals (6 gold, 6 silver, 8 bronze). Their latest successes were gold in 2016 and silver in 2018, with Nakamura being part of the team on both occasions.

In the women’s section, India are the top seeds. With Humpy sitting out, the team will be spearheaded by veteran Harika, participating in her 10th Olympiad since she debuted for the national team in 2004.

Besides India, Ukraine and Georgia are among the favourites. According to the average rating of their rosters, the top teams are India (2467), Georgia (2462), Poland (2422), China (2416), and Ukraine (2400). China are missing most of their top players – Hou Yifan, Ju Wenjun, Tan Zhongyi, and Lei Tingjie. Instead, the country that has won 14 women’s medals at the Olympiad, is bringing a younger generation of stars: 21-year-old Zhu Jiner, 14-year-old Lu Miaoyi, 19-year-old Song Yuxin, 29-year-old Guo Qi, and 27-year-old Ni Shiqun.

Georgia are a traditional chess superpower with nine medals in total (four gold, two silver, three bronze). While their latest Olympiad medal was a silver in 2022 after losing a close contest with champions Ukraine, their gold medals were won in the 1990s, with the team still led by the legendary Nona Gaprindashvili.

While Ukraine are a force to reckon with, what’ll be affecting them is the absence of the Muzychuk sisters, who are both among the world’s top-10 players.

Chess Olympiad 2024 Prizes

Besides bragging rights, the winning team in the open section of the Chess Olympiad receives the ‘Hamilton-Russell Cup’. The winning team in the women’s section receives the ‘Vera Menchik Cup’. The winning federation in the combined classification of the Chess Olympiad receives the ‘Nona Gaprindashvili Trophy’.

There are also individual medals on offer for each board. Players assigned to the same board number in their respective team lists compete for individual board prizes namely: gold, silver and bronze medals. A player needs to play at least eight games to be eligible for a board prize.

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