Liang's Shock Loss and Montenegro's Draw Rattle Samarkand

Round two of the Chess Olympiad in Samarkand was supposed to be a settling-in day, with the top seeds simply protecting the points they’d banked in round one. Instead, FIDE’s own recap of the day shows a round full of upsets, brilliancies, and near-disasters for teams that were supposed to be cruising.

The number that jumps out is 258. That’s the rating gap between Awonder Liang, rated 2693, and Mongolia’s Khuyagtsogt Itgelt, rated 2435, when the two met on board four of the USA-Mongolia match. Liang chose a risky Benoni setup as Black and got completely dismantled, in a result that on paper should happen only a handful of times in a hundred.

The USA survived the shock anyway. Fabiano Caruana made his debut on board one with a powerful win over Sumiya Bilguun, Levon Aronian ground out a narrow victory, and Hans Niemann held a solid draw, giving the Americans the match despite Liang’s loss.

The other genuine surprise came in the Women’s section, where second seed Georgia was held to a 2-2 tie by Montenegro. FIDE’s recap credits Alena Skvortsova as the main architect of that result. Against a section that otherwise produced blowout scores at the top, a drawn match against a lower seed counts as the day’s biggest dent in the standings.

Contrast that with Uzbekistan and the United States in the Women’s event, who both posted clean 4-0 wins, over Ecuador and Belgium respectively. Uzbekistan’s 17-year-old Afruza Khamdamova and the USA’s 23-year-old Carissa Yip both made their Samarkand debuts on board one and marked it with wins.

Third seed Kazakhstan had a tougher time, settling for 3-1 over Bosnia and Herzegovina after Milana Babić held debutant Bibisara Assaubayeva to a draw on top board.

The day’s real showpiece, though, wasn’t an upset at all. Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov, the challenger for the upcoming World Championship match and someone The Chess Herald has tracked since his win over Anand, led his team to a 3.5-0.5 win over Peru. He’d played a near-perfect game against Flores Quillas, hitting 98% accuracy, and had a simple winning move available in 31…Qa1.

He didn’t take it. Instead he played 31…Kf7!!, sacrificing his queen for the second time in the same game. Flores Quillas accepted with 32.Qxf1, allowing Sindarov to finish the combination with 32…Rh3!!, setting up an unstoppable mate threat with 33…h6.

Elsewhere among the leading Open teams, results were more mixed than the seedings suggested. Defending champions India were held to three draws by Indonesia, with Gukesh, Vidit and Praggnanandhaa all splitting the point, before Nihal Sarin’s lone win rescued the match.

India’s ongoing reliance on its bench depth to cover off-days for the top boards was also the theme of an earlier Chess Herald piece on the team. Indonesian teenager Satria Duta was the standout on the other side, holding reigning World Champion Gukesh to a draw.

China’s Ding Liren, unbeaten after round one, was held by Chile’s Rodrigo Vásquez Schroeder after misjudging a promising position, but Wei Yi’s debut on board two, capped by a trademark exchange sacrifice, secured a 3-1 win for China.

Germany’s Vincent Keymer made his own debut with a clean win over Uzbekistan 3’s Saidakbar Saydaliev, punishing 30…g5 with the crushing 31.Nxe6! and finishing with the quiet 33.Bc7!, a move that left Black unable to save either the trapped knight or bishop.

The Netherlands, Azerbaijan, France, Armenia, England, Ukraine, Poland and Spain all won their matches too, though several dropped a point or more along the way. Two ceremonial first moves opened the day’s play, with Qatar Chess Federation president Mohamed Al Mudahka playing 1.d4 on the USA-Mongolia board one, and Uzbekistan Chess Federation vice president Komil Sindarov opening the same way for the Finland-India Women’s top board.

Open standings after Round 2 of 11

#	Team	W–D–L	Match Points	Board Points
1	Poland	2–0–0	4	8
2	Croatia	2–0–0	4	8
3	Lithuania	2–0–0	4	8
4	Belarus	2–0–0	4	8
5	Iceland	2–0–0	4	8
6	Uzbekistan	2–0–0	4	7.5
7	Germany	2–0–0	4	7.5
8	France	2–0–0	4	7.5
9	Armenia	2–0–0	4	7.5
10	Iran	2–0–0	4	7.5

Women standings after Round 2 of 11

#	Team	W–D–L	Match Points	Board Points
1	USA	2–0–0	4	8
2	Ukraine	2–0–0	4	8
3	Azerbaijan	2–0–0	4	8
4	Netherlands	2–0–0	4	8
5	Uzbekistan	2–0–0	4	8
6	Serbia	2–0–0	4	8
7	Switzerland	2–0–0	4	8
8	Vietnam	2–0–0	4	8
9	Slovenia	2–0–0	4	8
10	Canada	2–0–0	4	8