Day 7 of the 2024 Chess Olympiad was a rest day for players and arbiters. It was also the first day of the FIDE Congress, although the morning sessions seemed pretty quiet, and after a brief visit I went off to do some site seeing. On place I did check out was the banks of the Danube, although this is now off limits as a rise in the river levels has seen the roads and footpaths along the shore covered in water.
Later in the day I caught up with former FIDE Executive Director Nigel Freeman, and well known arbiter and organiser Hal Bond. Along with Rupert Jones, we shared a number of drink and exchanged war stories well into the evening.
Day 8 saw the players return to the boards, and for some, it was a pretty rough day. The first shock of the round was China resting Ding Liren for the match against India, depriving the viewing public of a preview of the upcoming World Championship match with Gukesh. The strategy did not pay off as India beat China 2.5-1.5 to maintain their lead in the event. In outright 2nd is Iran who beat Vietnam and are 1 point behind the leaders.
Australia suffered a shock loss top Andorra, losing on board 1, and drawing the other 3 games. Despite the small population size, Andorra is still a very strong country, benefiting from its close proximity to major Spanish and French chess events. New Zealand had a better round, beating Malta 3-1, to join the Australians on 8 points. Papua New Guinea had a round to forget, losing 0-4 to Ghana. the match looked pretty even on paper, but 3 playable middle games collapsed pretty quickly, leading to a complete rout. Guam benefited from 2 forfeits to draw their match with Liberia, Palau beat Grenada 2.5-1.5, Fiji lost to a higher seed Namibia 0.5-3.5 and Vanuatu lost to USVI 1-3. In one piece of good news, Jeremy Ellison (Vanuatu) earned enough points to qualify for his CM title, which is great news for a federation who only joined last year.
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