Armenia’s Cinderella story may not be over yet, but at least for now their time at the top of the Olympiad has come to an end. The culprit: those youngsters from Uzbekistan. Boards 1 and 2 were drawn, and the Uzbek players won on boards 3 and 4. Javokhir Sindarov won very smoothly against Samvel Ter-Sahakyan, while Jakhongir Vakhidov’s win was less smooth but by no means accidental or lucky against Robert Hovhannisyan.
It would have made for a great story if India 2 had won their match to share the lead, but they “only” managed to draw with Azerbaijan. For the first time in the tournament, Dommaraju Gukesh failed to win, drawing with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (who does after all know a thing or two about chess). Both sides missed some relatively minor opportunities in the board 2 draw, and on boards 3 and 4 things went a bit crazy. With White, Praggnanandhaa had a big advantage around move 32, but four moves later he was (briefly) losing. The position kept sharpening, and although Pragg was winning early in the second time control it was a very confusing position that lent itself to errors. Round about move 55 it was Vasif Durarbayli who was winning again, but consecutive errors by him on moves 58 and 59 took him from winning to equal to lost, and this time he stayed there. White won, and that allowed India 2 to save the match, because on board 4 Raunak Sadhwani blundered in a worse but defensible position, and lost (to Nijat Abasov).
With the draw India 2 is tied for second with Armenia, a point (remember, it’s 2-1-0 scoring) behind Uzbekistan. Azerbaijan came into the round a point behind India 2 and thus remain there, tied with six other teams: Netherlands, Turkey, India 1, Iran, Serbia, and…yes, the United States, which eked out a 2.5-1.5 victory over Greece. The Netherlands drew with Iran, India 1 beat Brazil 3-1, and Serbia beat Kazakhstan 3-1.
A quick recap of the U.S. performance: on board 1, Fabiano Caruana was somewhat worse out of the opening, but when Dimitrios Mastrovasilis chose a poor plan on moves 20-22 Caruana won with an impressive attack on the king. On board 2 Levon Aronian also went headhunting, but he kept it up for too long. This eventually backfired against Nikolas Theodorou, and he lost. On board 3 it was again happy days for the black pieces, as Wesley So defeated the second Mastrovasilis - Athanasios - and on board 4 Leinier Dominguez “forgot” to copy the other boards and drew with the white pieces against Hristos Banikas. There were moments when he might have achieved more, but the important thing is that he was never in trouble.
Here’s today’s game selection, and these are the top pairings for round 10, the penultimate round:
India 2 (15) - Uzbekistan (16)
Azerbaijan (14) - Armenia (15)
USA (14) - Turkey (14)
Iran (14) - India 1 (14)
Serbia (14) - Netherlands (14)