CHESS BY VICTOR STRUGO

DOWN

1 Teff flatbread, in Gojjam Highlands

2 Overloaded

3 R100, in Rusty Dusty 4 “You’re welcome”, in Yusuf Drive

5 Follows the wash cycle

Uzbekistan had never won a Chess Olympiad medal before their surprise Gold last month in Chennai. Coached by GM Ivan Sokolov, the young Uzbeks (average aged 20) eclipsed India’s “Prodigy Team” and their final spurt relegated early leaders and former triple-winners Armenia to the Silver medals.

Two other heroic performances were those of rank outsiders Moldova (ranked 48th, finished 6th) and Lithuania (ranked 35th, finished 10th ahead of Netherlands, Spain, France and England).

The Open section had 187 teams (937 players) while the Women’s section had 161 teams (800 players). Considering the late change of venue (FIDE stripped Russia of the right to host when they invaded Ukraine), India’s organization was phenomenal. All games could be watched live on followchess.com, with clock times. For the record, here are the result highlights. A lot of other interesting statistics can be found at https://chessresults.com/tnr653631.aspx

Open Section

1 Uzbekistan (ranked 14th), 2 Armenia (12), 3 India 2 (11), 4 India 1 (2), 5 USA (1), 6 Moldova (48), 7 Azerbaijan (6), 8 Hungary (19), 9 Poland (5), 10 Lithuania (35)

Board Medals

1 Dommaraju Gukesh (India 2, 9/11points), 2 Nihal Sarin (India 2, 7.5/10), 3 David Howell (England, 7.5/8), 4 Jakhongir Vakhidov (Uzbek, 6.5/8), 5 Mateusz Bartel (Poland, 8.5/10). Gukesh’s rating performance was an amazing 2867. Howell’s was 2898!

South Africa ranked 68th and ended 55th. Personal scores were: GM Kenny Solomon 4/9, IM Daniel Cawdery 4/8, FM Daniel Barrish FM 5/9, Banele

Mhango 5/8 and IM Watu Kobese 5.5/9.

Women’s Section

1 Ukraine (ranked 2nd), 2 Georgia (3), 3 India 1 (1), 4 USA (7), 5 Kazakhstan (10), 6 Poland (4), 7 Azerbaijan (6), 8 India 2 (11), 9 Bulgaria (15), 10 Germany (8).

Board Medals

1 Pia Cramling (Sweden, 9.5/11points), 2 Nino

Batsiashvili (Georgia, 7.5/10), 3 Olivia Kiolbasa (Poland, 9.5/11), 4 Bat-erdene Mungunzul (Mongolia, 8.5/10), 5

Jana Schneider (Germany, 9/10).

South Africa ranked 81st and ended 100th. Personal scores were: WIM Jesse February 2/7, WIM Charlize van Zyl 4/9, Chloe Badenorst 5/9, WCM Rebecca Selkirk 4/9 and WIM Denise Bouah 4.5/10.

Ranked 94th in both sections, our close neighbour Zimbabwe ended 76th (Women) and a splendid 58th in the Open, one position ahead of third-ranked (!!) Norway, who boasted 5 GMS with the World Champion on top board!