CHENNAI: The Open team at the Olympiad were quite sure that Ding Liren, the reigning world champion, would sit out of China’s all-important clash against India. When what they suspected happened, D Gukesh was in a proper slugfest with Wei Yi. Srinath Narayanan, who helped break down each of the 11 rounds on the morning after the gold medal, confided that it took a while for him to figure what Gukesh’s plan even was during that seemingly drawn endgame.
The captain, after seeing the scores of congratulatory messages he received after the 10th round, also urged all five players of the Open team ‘to mute notifications or stay away from your phones for one more day’. Here’s Narayanan’s thoughts on how all 11 rounds went from his unique vantage points.
Round 1 | bt Morocco 4-0; Round 2 | bt Iceland 4-0
Gukesh and Praggnanadhaa had played in St. Louis while the others were coming in a bit colder, in terms of Classical events. So the idea was to give all of them some game time. That’s why Gukesh didn’t feature in the first round while Pragg sat out the Iceland match. In terms of how both those matches went, it was a very positive start from us and set us up for the rest of the tournament.
Round 3 | bt Hungary B 3.5-0.5
There were few combinations that we could have with in this game but we ended up going with Arjun in three and Vidit in four. It was nice that Arjun got to play with two white pieces (he played with white even in the second round). It was kind of useful to give him that momentum to get him into form and this opponent (Peter Prohaszka; a former 2600+ player) was good for him. It happened the way I anticipated.
Round 4 | bt Serbia 3.5-0.5
It was a big win, Serbia are the European champions. This was the win that showed that the team was building towards something special. By this time it was pretty clear that we were the strongest team in the tournament.
Round 5 | bt Azerbaijan 3-1
Another very positive result for us. There was an advantage in each of the first three boards and Gukesh and Arjun ahd big wins for us.
Round 6 | bt Hungary 3-1
(Was this the win when you thought nothing is going to go wrong?) You never really think nothing can go wrong. When you go in with this mindset, things do go wrong. Hungary had a pretty tough team. Out of the opening, I didn’t think Arjun was in a winning position. In the earlier games, when we were out of the opening, we had clear chances of winning. This game was the first when it took a while for us to be sure that we had a winning advantage.
Round 7 | bt China 2.5-1.5
We anticipated that Ding (Liren) would sit out. It really took a while for me to understand what Gukesh was even trying to do in his game against Wei Yi, what his plan was. Was he even pressing? It was pretty deep from him actually. His persistence showed that the game he played was pretty special because the position was pretty equal.
Round 8 | bt Iran 3.5-0.5
On the 3rd and 4th boards, we had pretty good pressure right from the beginning. On the first board (Gukesh v. Parham Maghsoodloo), it was a complex position. But probably the pressure on the other
boards may also have contributed for Parham colapsing from that position.
Round 9 | drew Uzbekistan 2-2
Had a big advantage for a big part of it. It looked like Pragg was under pressure and he was under pressure. Also, the move suggested by the computer (in the Pragg match) wasn’t very practical to play... it’s not something you play very easily. Arjun had a winning position in one move , he was dominating most of the day.
Round 10 | bt US 2.5-1.5
It was one of the special wins of the campaign. We played a very normal game. US are a very quality team and possibly the only team on par with India. To win this game in that situation felt very good. It was fantastic work by Gukesh who outplayed Fabiano (Caruana). In the third board, Arjun has always had an edge over Leinier Dominguez Perez and he continued it.
Round 11 | bt Slovenia 3.5-0.5
They didn’t check their phones. I had checked my phone and I saw it (people posting congratulatory messages). I told them to mute all notifications or just stay away from their phones for one more day. We were in jubilant mood for about 20 minutes and it was back to business after that. I felt there was some sort of personal motivation for all players in the final round. For Gukesh and Arjun, it was going for 2800 (ratings). For Pragg, it was to end on a good note (after the loss to Wesley So in the 10th round). Vidit also had an individual medal at stake. It’s also a good place to be in when you have no pressure and can play a normal game.