Today, the FIDE Online Olympiad players have crossed Division one’s equator.

Let’s see what happened during the second day of the top division’s matches in each of the pools. It has been even more eventful than the first one as leaders of many groups have played multiple matches with each other, switched places, and in a few groups, some rather unexpected outcomes have occurred! 

Live coverage of day one. Watch all of the live coverage at youtube.com/chess.

Pool A

Yesterday, after the end of the first day, China and Kazakhstan had the perfect score of six points and were about to play each other soon, in the very next round.

China was a big rating favorite, given their top male players, GM Ding Liren and GM Wei Yi, as well as world’s very best female players GM Hou Yifan and GM Ju Wenjun. However, the outcome of the match was rather unexpected. The two first boards showed domination by the Chinese superstars, but GM Zhansaya Abdumalik outplayed Hou Yifan with the white pieces in the Petroff, the fourth board drew, and the two last boards, where the young prodigies compete, saw Kazakhstan win, resulting in a 3.5-2.5 result in their favor.

This is definitely a match that is very likely to shape the outcome of the entire pool’s final standings, so it is certainly worth seeing some games from this match.

In the same round, Armenia convincingly beat Romania 4.5-1.5, Australia outplayed Georgia 4-2 (not a single draw, those are all very ambitious and fighting players!), Indonesia won 4-2 against Greece (not a single draw in the match, either!), while Iran managed to beat Mongolia with the 3.5-2.5 score in a tough match.

Round five saw Kazakhstan have a very difficult match versus Armenia, which they also went on to win with the minimal advantage, 3.5-2.5. Of course, their entire team is having a great run, but it is worth especially pointing out Zhansaya Abdumalik and Bibisara Assaubayeva, who won all of their games of the second day. China had a big win over Greece, not conceding a single point: 5-0. Iran convincingly beat Indonesia 5-1,  while Romania and Australia had a very tense encounter that ended in the victory of the former with the minimal score of 3.5-2.5.

Coming to round six, Kazakhstan had the sole leadership, which the team went on to maintain by scoring a terrific win against Greece with the score 5.5-0.5. It is truly incredible to observe the fantastic shape several players of their team are in, especially Abdumalik and Assaubayeva. Meanwhile, China was having a hard time with Iran but went on to win with the minimal difference of one point, 3.5-2.5. The top boards have drawn their games, so the outcome was decided on the female boards, with Ju Wenjun and WIM Ning Kaiyu winning their games.

Of course, nothing has been decided yet, but it looks like there are very clear contenders for the first and second place, so many readers would wonder, who is competing for the bronze medal. Currently, Kazakhstan has 12 points, China 10, and Iran sits at 8, while Armenia and Indonesia are a bit behind with six. 

So, tomorrow will be a very exciting day for this pool—not only can Kazakhstan score a crushing and a somewhat unexpected victory in the pool, but also, there is a large amount of suspense about the fight for the third place.

Pool B

In this pool, yesterday at the end of the day we left off with Hungary being the sole leader with three match wins and six points, while India had five, and France alongside with Moldova was a bit behind with 4 points each.

However, by the end of the second day, the leader had changed. Let us see how that happened.

To begin with, in round four, the leader Hungary tied the underdog team of Egypt 2.5-2.5 (we are about to see first board’s game a bit below), while their contender India went on to beat the Chinese team with a very convincing score of 5-1, catching up and starting to share the first place. France also won their match against Slovenia with 3.5-2.5, having reduced the lag behind the leader to just one point. At the same time, Moldova lost 2-4 to Sweden to stop participating in the race for the time being.

For this pool’s model game, I found the following encounter highly instructive, and hope you will learn a lot from it.

In round five, Hungary tied again – this time, with Belarus. The latter didn’t have a great first day, but in this round, Fedorov struck on board one, equalizing the outcome of the match, and allowing India, which beat Azerbaijan 4-2 due to wins by Humpy Koneru and Nihal Sarin, to become the leader. Meanwhile, France beat Egypt 3.5-1.5 and started sharing second-third with Hungary, while Moldova lost another match, this time with a whopping 5.5-0.5 score to China. Slovenia climbed up a bit, having beaten Sweden 4-2.

In the final round of the day, India outplayed Belarus 3.5-2.5 to stay in lead singlehandedly, while Hungary did a great service to their tournament standings by taking down their closest rival France with the score of 3.5-2.5, as youngsters GM Adam Kozak and WFM Gaal Zsoka scored for them. At the same time, Moldova continued its downfall, having lost to the Azeri team with a score of 5-1.

As a result, we now have India sitting at 11 points, Hungary at 10, France at 8, while three teams – Azerbaijan, Slovenia and Sweden each have 6 points. So, while it will not be easy to catch the two distinct leaders during the last day, there is definitely going to be a lot of fight for the third place, which will be be a truly thrilling show to follow!

Pool C

In this pool, yesterday we left off, having said Russia was having a terrific run, having beaten all the opponents. Argentina was on the second place with five points, while the four teams of Spain, Italy, Israel and Ukraine were a bit behind with four points each.

A lot has changed during this day. Let’s see, how that happened.

The day began with Russia beat Paraguay 4.5-1.5, even though Grischuk sensationally lost on board one to an IM Guillermo Vasquez, who initially got a worse position with White in the Italian game, but then played extremely well to regain the advantage after a few imprecise moves on the Russian super-grandmaster’s part. Argentina lost 2.5-3.5 to Italy, having lost its second place in standings, while the latter made a big step forward. So did Ukraine, whose team brilliantly beat Czech Republic 5-1, and so did Israel, having won 3.5-2.5 against Spain. The leaders are taking each other down, which is always very exciting to watch! Meanwhile, Germany beat Latvia 4-2 to climb its way up the standings.

Round five saw Russia very convincingly outplaying Israel 5-1 and keeping the lead. Spain dragged Argentina even further down, having won the match 4-2. Ukraine continued strongly, having beaten Paraguay 4.5-1.5, while Latvia, who has been playing without a single GM in the team, took down Italy 3.5-2.5, kicking the latter out of competition for the top spots—at least, for now. Finally, Germany crushed Czech Republic 5.5-0.5, getting back in the top pack.

The last round unfolded with yet another disaster for Argentina. This team, which started so brilliantly yesterday with 5/6, had lost all three matches of the second day – this time to Russia with the score 0-6. It must be a truly heartbreaking view for Argentina’s fans! Ukraine pursued its way up to the second place, having won a very tense match against Israel that could have gone either way with the minimal advantage: 3.5-2.5. However, it could have ended the other way very easily, had Maria Klimova converted an entirely winning position against Iulija Osmak.

Finally, Germany continued today’s streak, having crushed Paraguay 6-0, which enabled them to rise up to the clean third, and Spain tied Italy 3-3.

As a result, Russia has the perfect score of 12 points, Ukraine is two points behind with 10, Germany has 8, and Italy together with Spain are trying to catch up with 7.

It would be rather surprising if any other teams would manage to compete for the first spots, but any team can noticeably bite the leaders and change the standings in no time, so it is highly exciting to see what the last three rounds will bring!

Pool D

The D-pool also saw quite a noticeable change of leaders today, which is something I am sure you are curious to find out about.

The day began with two leaders splitting their ways, as USA beat England 4.5-1.5 to continue the home run, while Peru lost its top position, having lost 4-2 to Cuba. A somewhat shocking result occurred this round, as Poland with their two super-grandmasters, Wojtaszek and Duda, tied Turkey 2.5-2.5, which is playing without a single GM on their team. To add even more intrigue, Canada also rather unexpectedly beat the higher-rated Dutch team 4-2 to start chasing the leaders.

In round five, team USA reinforced its lead, having beat Turkey 3.5-1.5. However, while a lost match won’t be considered a success by many, Turkey has nothing to be ashamed of, as this team without a single GM(!) managed to take 1.5 points from the highest-ranked team in the pool. At the same time, Peru kept having a hard day as they got demolished by Poland with the score 5.5-0.5. Canada, being an underdog, scored another fantastic win: this time, 5-1 versus England! The Brits, despite have so many legendary players on their team, have not been doing well at all this tournament and unexpectedly found themselves on the very last place, which is something very few would have predicted before the event. Additionally, Brazil beat the Netherlands 4-2, pushing the latter even further down the crosstable.

The sixth round did not bring any relief to Peru: the team lost all the matches today, this time 1.5-4.5 to USA. Meanwhile, Poland and Canada reinforced their excellent standings, having respectively beaten Cuba and Turkey with identical scores of 5-1.

This is, perhaps, the group where I would be least willing to bet against the clear top three finishers, as by the end of the day USA is at 12 points, having won all their matches, Canada and Poland are tied for 2nd-3rd with 10 points, and the 4th place, Cuba, only has six points with three rounds to go. A miracle has to happen for Cuba to start competing for the medals; however, within the top three, nothing is clear yet!

I have chosen the following game of today from this pool both because I find the way White played rather instructive, and because it’s nice to cheer up the British fans a bit;their team has been having a rough time, but in this game, their favorite Mickey Adams shone.

To conclude, this day saw a lot of groups change leaders. For example, India overtook Hungary to grab the lead, Peru lost all the three matches in the D-pool to leave the US the sole leader.

At the moment, it looks like the situation in the C and D pools is the least unclear, as there are clear leaders and clear contenders for the second and third who are a good couple points ahead of the rest of the pack. However, nothing is clear when it comes to fighting for the actual places within the top three, as any match loss by one of the leaders would flip the situation upside down in those groups.

At the same time, in the Pool A, there will still be a lot of fight, as Kazakhstan needs to maintain its lead, and multiple teams are fighting for the third place. 

Finally, in the B-pool, nothing at all is clear so far, as India’s lead is so fragile; a single game can, as usual, completely turn the tables.

The final day’s matches look as exciting as ever, so we are all thrilled to see those.

The FIDE Online Olympiad, a major online chess event for national teams, runs August 20-September 15 on the Chess.com server. More than 1,000 participants and 153 teams from all over the world are playing.

Each team consists of six players, including at least two women, at least one player who is 20 or younger, and at least one female player who is 20 or younger. The time control for all matches is 15 minutes for the game and a five-second increment per move, starting from move one.

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