The open event at the 44th Chess Olympiad was held from 29 July to 9 August 2022. It was contested by a record number of 188 teams, representing 186 nations. India, as host nation, fielded three teams. A total of 937 players participated in the open event.
Uzbekistan won the gold medal in the Open event, which was their first overall medal in the Chess Olympiads. English player David Howell had the highest score for an individual player in the Open event, scoring 7½ out of a possible 8 points with a performance rating of 2898. Other players who won individual gold medals include Gukesh D of India-2 on board one who scored 9 out of 11 with a performance rating of 2867, Nihal Sarin also of India-2 on board two who scored 7½ of 10 with a performance rating of 2774, Jahongir Vakhidov of Uzbekistan on board four who scored 6½ out of 8 with a performance rating of 2813, and Mateusz Bartel of Poland as a reserve player who scored 8½ out of 10 points with a performance rating of 2778.
Competition format and calendar The tournament was played in a Swiss-system format. The time control for all games was 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, after which an additional 30 minutes were granted and increment of 30 seconds per move was applied from the first move. Players were permitted to offer a draw at any time. A total of 11 rounds were played, with all teams playing in every round.
In each round, four players from each team faced four players from another team; teams were permitted one reserve player who could be substituted between rounds. The four games were played simultaneously on four boards, scoring 1 game point for a win and ½ game point for a draw. The scores from each game were summed together to determine which team won the round. Winning a round was worth 2 match points, regardless of the game point margin, while drawing a round was worth one match point. Teams were ranked in a table based on match points. Tie-breakers for the table were i) the Sonneborn–Berger system; ii) total game points scored; iii) the sum of the match points of the opponents, excluding the lowest one.
Tournament rounds started on 29 July and ended with the final round on 9 August. All rounds began at 15:00 IST (UTC+5:30), except for the final round which began at 10:00 IST (UTC+5:30). There was one rest day at the tournament—on 4 August—after the sixth round.
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Teams and players The open section of the tournament was contested by a record number of 188 teams, representing 186 nations. India, as host country, fielded three teams.
The tournament featured five out of the top ten players from the FIDE rating list published in July 2022. World Champion Magnus Carlsen played on the top board for his native Norway. Former World Champion Viswanathan Anand did not play for the host country and decided to mentor the team instead. Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren, the contenders for the title in the World Chess Championship 2023, missed the tournament because of Russia's suspension and China's withdrawal, respectively. Other top players who skipped the Olympiad include France's Alireza Firouzja and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, with the latter citing the unfavourable weather conditions as reason for their decision, Teimour Radjabov withdrew from playing for his native Azerbaijan shortly before the start of the tournament due to the after-effects of a COVID-19 infection that he contacted after returning from the Candidates Tournament 2022, Lê Quang Liêm was also missing from the leaderboard since Vietnam did not send a team for the open event, and Richárd Rapport being in the middle of a federation change to Romania could not represent Hungary. On the other hand, Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian and Wesley So, all ranked in the top ten, played for the United States.
In the absence of Russia and China, the United States were clear favourites with an average rating of 2771, which was one rating point less than the average of the team at the Batumi Chess Olympiad. The new names in the line-up from the team that won a gold and a silver medal at the previous two Chess Olympiads were Levon Aronian and Leinier Domínguez who switched federations after the previous Chess Olympiad, while Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Sam Shankland make up the rest. Viswanathan Anand described the team as "breathtaking", and top-board Dutch player Anish Giri said that the team "not dominating the Olympiad would be a shocker". The host nation India had the second strongest team with an average pre-tournament rating of 2696, consisting of Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and Pentala Harikrishna, Arjun Erigaisi, S. L. Narayanan and Krishnan Sasikiran. Norway took the third place in the seedings with an average rating of 2692 thanks to having Magnus Carlsen on the team. Other pre-tournament favourites included Spain with Alexei Shirov on the top board and Poland led by the winner of the Chess World Cup 2021 Jan-Krzysztof Duda. The young squads of Germany, Uzbekistan and especially India's second team with the prodigies R Praggnanandhaa, Nihal Sarin and Gukesh D were also expected to surprise.
Rounds
Round 1
The first round went in line with the expectations and a total of 76 out of 92 matches ended 4–0. Among the top favourites, India, Spain, Azerbaijan and Poland blanked Zimbabwe, Wales, Algeria and Syria, respectively. The top-ranked team of the United States conceded a half point to Angola after Levon Aronian drew with the Black pieces on board one against David Silva. Aronian played risky in the middlegame and ended up in a position being an exchange down. However, his opponent accepted the draw offer after move 41 in a position which was arguably winning for him (see diagram).
World Champion Magnus Carlsen rested in the first round, but his team did not have problems beating Lebanon 3½–½. Johan-Sebastian Christiansen got in trouble in his game as Black on the third board after he had misplayed the position, but he was eventually able to reach a drawn position upon threefold repetition. One of the biggest upsets in the first round happened in the match between Guyana and Andorra, where Guyana's Anthony Drayton Huayan defeated Jordi Fluvia, who was rated 500 points better than his opponent. There was great fight in Alexei Shirov's game against Grzegorz Toczek of Wales, but Shirov managed to score a win in an attacking style, sacrificing a piece to catch his opponent's King in the centre.
Round 2
Most of the favourites scored their second victories in the second round even though the matches were closer. A total of 43 teams continued their winning streak and nine of them had perfect scores after scoring a clean 4–0 victory again. On the first table, India scored a convincing 3½–½ win against the substantially weakened Moldova, which miss Victor Bologan and Viorel Iordăchescu, with only Arjun Erigaisi drawing his game on the second board. The United States had a tough clash with Paraguay on the second table but managed to edge them out by 2½–1½ thanks to Leinier Domínguez who scored the only win in the match with the White pieces on the third board. Fabiano Caruana made his debut at his 30th birthday with a safe draw against Axel Bachmann on the top board. Wesley So and Sam Shankland also drew their games. This round also saw the World Champion Magnus Carlsen playing his first game at the Olympiad against Georg Meier who represents Uruguay. Carlsen won a pawn shortly before entering a queen endgame, which was drawn according to the engines, but he continued trying. The position was still a draw even after he got a two-pawn advantage, but Meier made a decisive mistake to let Carlsen grind out a win (see diagram). Norway ultimately won the match 4–0.
In the other matches involving top-seeded teams, Spain scored a 3½–½ victory against Belgium led by junior Grandmaster Daniel Dardha, while Poland, Azerbaijan and the Netherlands all won their matches against Colombia, Philippines and Portugal. India-2 whitewashed Estonia to extend their perfect score from the first round, while Ukraine have also recorded their second 4–0 victory against Albania. Bulgaria, whose team does not feature its top players at this Olympiad, upset Croatia by scoring a huge 3½–½ victory. Only Ivan Šarić on the top board was able to draw his game as White against Momchil Petkov. The biggest surprise of the day was perhaps Zambia's minimal match win against Denmark. On the top three boards, three Zambian International Masters drew against three Danish Grandmasters, whereas Nase Lungu checkmated Martin Haubro with the White pieces on the lowest board.
Round 3
The number of teams which have won all their matches after three rounds reduced to 20, with India-2 being the only team with a perfect score of 12 wins out of 12 games. The team consisting of young players outclassed Switzerland 4–0 even though it did not seem realistic given that Yannick Pelletier had a big advantage with a safer king and better structure in his game against R Praggnanandhaa. However, the young Indian player posed problems in a difficult position and managed to force his opponent to error-prone play while short on time that eventually cost him the game after 67 moves. After the game, Praggnanandhaa confessed:
I have played badly, and this point doesn’t give me any joy. I struggled throughout this game in a bad position and I feel sorry for my opponent.
The first Indian team scored their third match victory after beating Greece 3–1 thanks to the wins scored by Pentala Harikrishna and Arjun Erigaisi with the White pieces. Harikrishna played an impressive attacking game against Dimitrios Mastrovasilis with a twin bishop sacrifice to open up the position around his opponent's king and snatch the win (see diagram). In a similar fashion as the top team of the host nation, the top-seeded team of the United States defeated Georgia 3–1. Levon Aronian and Sam Shankland with the White pieces converted small advantages to victories, whereas Fabiano Caruana and Leinier Domínguez drew their games as Black. Aronian played a great game in which he dominated his opponent with two rooks and a knight against two rooks and a bishop. Poland, Azerbaijan and the Netherlands scored their third wins in a row with Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Anish Giri all winning their first games at the Olympiad.
Norway were surprised by the well-balanced team of Italy, who scored a clear 3–1 victory, with two wins on the lower boards where Lorenzo Lodici beat Jon Ludvig Hammer as White and Francesco Sonis won his game as Black against Johan-Sebastian Christiansen. On the top board, Daniele Vocaturo played a solid game in the Caro–Kann Defence and split the point with Magnus Carlsen. Another surprise of the day was Austria's minimal win over Germany thanks to the victories scored by Felix Blohberger and Dominik Horvath against Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and Dmitrij Kollars. The clash between Ukraine and Cuba ended a draw after each team scored one win. Yasser Quesada Pérez defeated Anton Korobov on board one, while his brother Luis Ernesto Quesada lost against Kirill Shevchenko on the third board.