Which is underway now. “Today” (i.e. yesterday, Monday) was a busy day, so annotated games from round 10 will have to wait until later. But here’s a recap of the most important matches from the penultimate round.
The top match featured a pairing I had been long looking forward to, between the two teams made up of mostly very young, rising stars: India 2 and Uzbekistan. The match finished in a draw, which was extremely fortunate for Uzbekistan. On board 3 Praggnanandhaa defeated Sindarov in a “normal” way, but board 1 was a tragedy for India 2. The star of the Olympiad, Gukesh, was winning against Abdusattorov for a very long time and enjoyed a position that could not be lost…famous last words. Unexpectedly, Gukesh spoiled what was a very clearly winning advantage, but even after that there was no reason to lose; indeed, he had more than one opportunity to make a draw. And he should have, as it would have won the match. Instead, he kept trying, started to get into a little trouble, and then blundered a piece for nothing, losing instantly. This will probably cost India 2 their well-earned shot at winning the Olympiad, just as Sam Shankland’s illegal Kc2?? vs. Robert Hovhannisyan probably put an end to the U.S.’s hopes. We all lose, and we all blunder, but making utterly unforced errors, especially under such circumstances, is far worse, and can be scarring. Hopefully both players recover and lead their teams to Olympiad victories in later competitions.
On to other matches. Armenia bounced back from their first loss in the previous round to defeat Azerbaijan 3-1, with Sargissian beating Mamedyarov and Hovhannisyan defeating Abasov. That brought them into a tie with the Uzbeks in first, a point (half a point, but it’s 2-1-0 scoring) ahead of India 2, India 1 (which beat Iran 2.5-1.5) and the U.S. (which defeated Turkey 3-1).
The last round has already started, a few hours early, with the following key pairings:
Germany (15) - India 2 (16) (India is off to a good start, with equality in their black games and a near-clear and a decisive advantage in their white games.)
Armenia (17) - Spain (15) (No big pluses for anyone yet.)
Uzbekistan (17) - Netherlands (15) (So far the Uzbek players have clear advantages on boards 3 and 4, while the Netherlands are clearly better on board 2.)
India 1 (16) - USA (16) (Harikrishna - Caruana was already drawn on board 1. The U.S. is slightly better in their white games, and India is clearly better in their remaining white game.)
A funny thing about the last round pairings is that it wound up with the top two seeds facing off, and while it would take a lot of help, the winner of that match (if there is one) could even take clear first in the tournament. It could happen…