The hopes of young men: will the Russian national team be able to win the Chess Olympiad

The Russian national chess team will compete in an international team tournament for the first time since 2021. The U-16 team, led by the country's record holder Ivan Zemlyansky, will compete at the Under-16 World Chess Olympiad, which will be held from August 16 to 23 in Barranquilla. Currently, 89 national teams from 45 countries have been registered to participate in the competition. Russia will bring to Colombia the strongest squad in the history of the competition. In addition to the 14-year-old Zemlyansky, three more grandmasters will play for our team, and the team captain will be the titled Evgeny Tomashevsky.

Unpredictability

In September 2024, the FIDE Council lifted the ban on the performance of youth national teams and teams of athletes with disabilities from Russia and Belarus. In July of this year, the organization's board also disbanded the women's national teams that will participate in the November World Team Championship in Linares. The U-16 team, which has gathered some of the most talented juniors in the world, will be the first of our national team to perform at the international team start after a long break.

"This is a unique team," Alexander Ryazantsev, coach of the Russian men's national team, who will also accompany the national team to Colombia, said in a conversation with Izvestia. — For the first time in history, there will be four grandmasters in the same team at the youth level. We are talking about Ivan Zemlyansky, the Russian record holder, Savva Vetokhin, who has been successfully competing in adult competitions for the past few years. Their rating is already approaching 2600. I hope they will continue to make progress in the coming years and their entry into the top 100 is just around the corner. Artyom Uskov has made a powerful breakthrough this year. Anna Shukhman is a chess player with great prospects. I am sure that in the future she will be able to compete for the highest places in elite tournaments among women. I hope that with this squad we will fight for the first place in Colombia. Although it just definitely won't be.

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According to the average rating, the Russian national team, or, as indicated in the protocol, FIDE-1, is the favorite rating. The top 3 also includes the national teams of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan-1 (the second Kazakh team is on the fifth line). The national team of Belarus, or FIDE-2, is the ninth in the average rating.

— Our main competitors are India, China, Iran, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Plus, there are often unpredictable results at the youth level. You don't have to pay attention to the rating of your opponents, it may be underestimated," Ryazantsev continued.

Before the trip, our team packed up and went to Colombia on the night of August 13-14 to acclimatize (the first tour will take place on the 17th).

The finest hour

The participants will play nine rounds according to the Swiss system, just like at the adult Olympics. In other words, our guys will have to play with all the strongest players in the tournament anyway. However, this is already a familiar state for them.

This year, 16-year-old Shukhman won the individual Under-20 World Cup, and also completed two rounds at the World Cup. 16-year-old Vetokhin rounded out the top 10 at the Aeroflot Open, and in December 2024 he won a tournament in Catalonia, where he beat two participants in the tournaments of candidates from different years — Ukrainian Vasily Ivanchuk and Russian Kirill Alekseenko, who now plays for Austria. Artyom Uskov, 15, became a grandmaster at the end of March and won two consecutive tournaments in Budapest. Next, Artyom won the Rapid World Championship under 16 years of age.

Ivan Zemlyansky has the most high-profile achievements in this four. Let's remind that the native of Tyumen became a grandmaster, having performed well at the open in Sharjah in May last year. After being officially awarded the title at the FIDE Congress, Ivan became the youngest grandmaster in the history of Russia (13 years, 8 months, 20 days). Before that, the record was held by Anish Giri, who became a grandmaster at the age of 14 and a half, while still competing under the Russian flag. The result of the young player is among the top ten achievements of chess prodigies of all time.

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In March 2025, Ivan almost beat Yan Nepomnyashchy at the Aeroflot Open and finished the tournament with a +4, and in May he became the Asian blitz champion.

"Of course, his game and progress are encouraging," Evgeny Tomashevsky, the head coach of the Russian youth national team, told Izvestia. — It is clear that he and his coaches (Yaroslav Prizant and Alexander Ryazantsev) are doing a very serious job. There is a steady forward movement, and this is noticeable in the parties. We can already say that he is a mature chess player, despite his young age. You can expect serious achievements from him. How serious, time will tell. But, of course, his game pleases.

— I can note his fantastic efficiency, great concentration, — said Ryazantsev. — He can digest a large amount of information and in his free time either plays chess or solves problems. We rode with him on the subway in Moscow. It doesn't matter if it's one or two stations, Ivan opens the app and plays. I mean, he's totally immersed in the game, and that's great.

Zemlyansky will play on the first board, and we have every right to expect that he will score the maximum number of points and return to Russia the title of Olympic champion in this age category. Prior to that, our youth team had won the Under-16 Olympics eight times (in 1993, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2017 years).