Armenia defeated India 2–1.5 and claimed the lead with 12 match points at the end of the sixth round of the 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad, courtesy of decisive victories by GMs Samvel Ter-Sahakyan and Robert Hovhannisyan. In a crucial encounter, GM Fabiano Caruana defeated GM Parham Maghsoodloo to help the United States overcome Iran and move into second place in the standings with 11 match points. India 2, Uzbekistan, France, India, Netherlands, Cuba, India 3, Germany, Kazakhstan, Serbia, and Peru are all tied for a third-13th position with 10 match points.
GM Dommaraju Gukesh of India 2 won his sixth consecutive game, this time over GM Gabriel Sargissian, while GM Anish Giri of the Netherlands defeated GM Baadur Jobava of Georgia in a brilliantly inventive game.
GM Koneru Humpy and IM Vaishali R scored two crucial victories in a heavyweight match, helping India to a 3-1 victory over Georgia, a chess powerhouse, and take sole lead in the FIDE Women’s Chess Olympiad. India tops the rankings with 12 match points.
20th-seeded Romania’s excellent performance continued, tying 2-2 with second-seeded Ukraine, and was joined by Azerbaijan, which defeated Kazakhstan in a tie for third place with 11 match points apiece. Poland, Ukraine, Armenia, Bulgaria, Israel, Georgia, Vietnam, and the Netherlands are all tied for fourth to the twelfth position with ten match points.
WIM Miruana-Daria Lehaci (2193) of Romania earned the point after her opponent, IM Iulija Osmak (2420) of Ukraine, blundered a piece in a drawish ending, tying Romania.
Olympiad Camaraderie
Chess is a solitary pastime, yet we humans enjoy socialising. We have rivals in the form of our countrymen, whom we have fought over the chessboard since childhood, but when we play as a team, we quickly discover instant camaraderie—after all, we all have a love for the game. We dress alike or wear uniforms, and we enjoy battling each other while sitting close together. Olympiads are also locations where we see friends we don’t see very often—in fact, some of us only see them during Olympiads! Even if they do not compete in the Olympics, groups of people working at the site make friendships—after all, two weeks is a long time in life.