The Bhutanese Leading the way.
In the ongoing 45th Chess Olympiad held in Budapest, Hungary, the Bhutanese women’s team and Bhutanese men’s team are doing well so far. The women’s team secured 2 wins and men’s team drew after the 7th round.
On 19 September 2024, the women’s team had 3v1 win against Saint Kitts and Nevis, with Asha Huang Limboo getting her third win, Namgay Dolma with her first win and Yeshay Lhaden with her second win.
Pema Yangsel, the youngest female player, has had 2 wins so far in the Olympiad.
Open team had 2v2 draw against Democratic Republic of Congo. The team got their 3rd draw with the youngest open player, Lhundrup Dorji, getting his third win of the tournament and Suk Raj getting his fourth individual win.
Thinley Palden Dorji, the team leader, shared that both the men and women teams are on track and have the best result out of the three times that Bhutan competed in the Chess Olympiad.
“The women’s team is thrilled with their performance so far, as they have had 2 wins after 7 rounds. The open team is satisfied, but a bit frustrated that they could not convert the 3 draws to wins. Many of the games have been very close and competitive. Our player needs to learn how to perform when they are under pressure,” the team leader said.
He shared that the goal is to improve both the teams’ starting rank by ten positions each, which in the next 4 rounds, the teams hope to be able to get by securing 2 to 3 wins.
Suk Raj who has 4 points from 8 rounds and is also the first player to defeat a FIDE 2000 + rated player. This has never been done before, and this is his 2nd time on the Chess Olympiad team.
15-year-old Lhundrup Dorji has 3.5 points from 8 rounds. He has the 2nd highest points. This is his 2nd Chess Olympiad and he has been a part of Bhutan team since he was 12 years old.
Asha Huang Limboo has 3 points from 8 rounds and has won 3 games. This is her 2nd time on Chess Olympiad team.
Thinley Palden Dorji said, “A lot of analysis is being done of the opponent before the game, to try and understand what they play. Each member of the team spends many hours researching their respective opponents.”
He also pointed out that severe fund shortages is hampering the potential of the chess teams.
“We had to reduce the total number of people from 13 to 10 which is the minimum number of people required for an Open and Women team at the Chess Olympiad. Bhutan has talent but it needs to be nurtured, and this is only possible if there are adequate resources.”
Since December 2023, the shortlisted players started training with International Master (IM) Atanu Lahiri. The training has been going on for 9 months.
“We need resources to have a full-time coach who can train our players throughout the year, this is the only way we can make significant progress. We hope our achievements in the Olympiad will result in more funds for the development of the sport in Bhutan. This sport has great potential to teach many essential life skills that our children need to be successful in life, doing everything, not just chess,” he added.
The 45th Chess Olympiad has had the maximum participation ever with 170 women’s teams and 189 open teams.
In 2014 Olympiad in Tromso, Norway, Bhutan’s team only won one match and drew one match out of the 11 matches played. In the 2022 Chennai Chess Olympiad, which was attend by 3 of the of the existing 4 players, team Bhutan won 3 matches and drew 1 match.
