2022 Chess Olympiad - Day 8

 Armenia has built their previous Olympiad victories on managing to score a lot of 2.5-1.5 match wins, which is just as good a 4-0 in this kind of team event (tie-break effects non-withstanding). So it wasn't a huge surprise when Armenia did an 'Armenia' and defeated India by this score. Draws on the bottom 3 boards, started the match, before a marathon win on the top board brought home the 2 points. They still lead the tournament by 1 point with 3 rounds to play, but more importantly, they have played India and India 2, plus the USA. They are up against another surprise packet, Uzbekistan, in today's round.

The Australian team bounced back with a narrow 2.5-1.5 win over Finland (Armenia style!). They are now in the 11 point group which is a tie for 17th. However they face a tough pairing today, up against the 8th seeded Ukraine. The Australian Women's team had a 3-1 win over the UAE and have now caught the young New Zealand team who are also on 9 points after an amazing 2-2 result against Denmark.

A mixed day for the rest of the Oceania teams with PNG losing 3-1 to Palestine, Fiji getting a second tournament win, beating the British Virgin Islands, Guam and Palau drawing, and Nauru losing 3-1. New Zeland also lost, but only by a narrow 2.5-1.5 margin, against the significantly stronger Bangladesh team.