The triumph of the 'Dark Horse'

The Dark Horse of the tournament was Uzbekistan, first proved to the world when the reigning World Rapid champion, GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov defeated former world championship challenger and world no.2, GM Fabiano Caruana (USA) in Round 4. He could not recover for the rest of the tournament, as he went on to lose two more games. Another sign of Uzbekistan's strength is, they are the only team to score four whitewashes in the tournament against Nepal, Faroe Islands, Slovakia and Peru. In comparison, USA did not manage to score a single 4-0 victory. That certainly shows that USA was not hitting their mark as a team.

44th Chess Olympiad 2022 Open winner - Uzbekistan | Photo: FIDE/Lennart Ootes
The five Uzbekistan boys ruled the Chess Olympiad | Video: ChessBase India

The Ivan Sokolov led the invincible Uzbekistan | Photo: FIDE/Lennart Ootes

44th Chess Olympiad 2022 Official logo | Photo: Official site

Gold medalist in Open: Uzbekistan 19/22

What makes the Uzbekistan team so special? The answer is certainly two-fold. Firstly, the presence of GM FST Ivan Sokolov. He has trained former World no.2 Alireza Firouzja, Tata Steel 2021 winner Jorden van Foreest and many others. He himself is a former world no.12 and won against six world champions. He is a renowned coach and bestseller writer. That is certainly a mighty resume for the Uzbekistan captain and coach.

Uzbekistan never lost a match as a team, individually they lost only three games out of 44

Warmerdam - Vakhidov

Position after 24...e6

Jakhongir Vakhidov's win over Max Warmerdam in the final round turned out to be the decisive one as the remaining three games between Uzbekistan and Netherlands ended in a draw. 24...e6 25.Bxf6 Bxf6 26.Qxf6 Vakhidov opted for safest option Qxh2+ 27.Kxh2 Nxf6. Two extra pawns are certainly enough to win the game which he did.

Board prize winners

Board #1 - 2nd GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB), 1st GM D Gukesh and 3rd GM Magnus Carlsen (NOR, not in picture) | Photo: FIDE/Lennart Ootes
The secrets of how Gukesh performed at an Elo of 2867 at the Olympiad 2022 | Video: ChessBase India
Developing a world-class chess prodigy - Rajinikanth, father D Gukesh | Video: ChessBase India

Reigning World Rapid champion Nodirbek Abdusattorov seen shaking hands with the former two-time World Rapid champion, Vishy Anand | Photo: FIDE/Lennart Ootes

Board #2 winners (L to R) - 3rd GM Nodirbek Yakubboev (UZB), 1st GM Nihal Sarin and 2nd GM Nikolaos Theodorou (GRE) | Photo: FIDE/Lennart Ootes
Individual Gold and team Bronze gives renewed confidence to Nihal Sarin | Video: ChessBase India

Board #3 winners (L to R) - 2nd GM Arjun Erigaisi, 1st GM David Howell (ENG) and 3rd Praggnanandhaa R | Photo: FIDE/Lennart Ootes
Arjun Erigaisi becomes the 7th Indian to break the 2700 Elo barrier | Video: ChessBase India
"I took a lot of pressure in the first half" - Praggnanandhaa on Olympiad 2022 | Video: ChessBase India

Board #4 winners (L to R) - 2nd GM Paulius Pultinevicius (LTU), 1st GM Jakhongir Vakhidov (UZB) and 3rd Jaime Santos Latasa (ESP) | Photo: FIDE/Lennart Ootes

Board #5/Reserve winners (L to R) - 2nd GM Robert Hovhannisyan (ARM), 1st GM Mateusz Bartel (POL) and 3rd GM Volodymyr Onyshchuk (UKR) | Photo: FIDE/Lennart Ootes

Only Open section winners are mentioned here. Women's section report is coming soon.

Highlights

▪ 48th seeded Moldova finished sixth scoring 17/22. Not a single member was over 2500 or remained undefeated. With only one GM in the team, they lost only one match out of eleven.

▪ 19th seeded Hungary secured eighth place 16/22.

▪ Poland no.1 and FIDE World Cup 2021 winner played only five games scoring 50% 2.5/5. He did not play a single game in the last four rounds.

▪ 35th seeded Lithuania scored 16/22 to finish tenth.

▪ Netherlands, Spain, England and Germany finished outside of top 10 at 11th, 12th, 14th and 18th place.

▪ Cuba 19th and Brazil 21st are the top Latin America teams, while Egypt 36th and Tunisia 41st were the top African teams among the finishers.

Links

Official site

Tournament Regulations

 

Edit 12/8/2022: Top Latin American team names updated