Robocop. This was what GM Yermolinksy dubbed IM Conor Murphy as he followed his superlative result. While the 2022 Olympiad was dominated by the performance of the youthful and brilliant Gukesh, and other stars on the rise, it is also much more than a collection of super grandmasters, so let us sing the praises of the unlikely heroes who rose to the occasion.
The junior players impressed at the Chess Olympiad in Chennai. 13 of the world's top 20 juniors played on their countries' national teams. And ten of these 13 juniors improved their ratings significantly. But a few "oldies" also had remarkable results.
The Ukraine women's team featured three world champions in their team since 2014. The team comprised of 14th Women's World champion GM Anna Ushenina, 15th Mariya Muzychuk, one-time World Rapid and two-time World Blitz champion, GM Anna Muzychuk. Ushenina is the only player who was also part of 37th Turin Olympiad, Gold medal winning team Ukraine. She is also the only one of the team, who remained unbeaten in the entire event. Ever since Anna Muzychuk's return to the Ukraine team in 2014, they won have a medal in each Olympiad. Since the Russia invaded Ukraine in February this year, all of them have persevered through difficult and uncertain times. Yet, they managed to remain unbeaten and clinch an important Gold in these trying times.
Continuing with their good form in the event, Uzbekistan and Armenia prevailed over higher seeds Netherland and Spain respectively in the 11th and final round to tie for first-second places with 19 match points in the 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad, with Uzbekistan prevailing on tiebreaks. 11th-seeded India.