the highest in the history of Chess Olympiads. Russia as the second strongest team have made changes in the line-up compared to the Baku Chess Olympiad, where Dmitry Jakovenko and Nikita Vitiugov have replaced Alexander Grischuk and Evgeny Tomashevsky along Vladimir Kramnik, Sergey Karjakin and Ian Nepomniachtchi. China have the third highest pre-tournament rating of 2752 and four players from Baku on the team, including Ding Liren, Li Chao, Wei Yi and Yu Yangyi, while Wang Yue was replaced by Bu Xiangzhi. Other teams among the top seeds with average ratings above 2700 are Azerbaijan led by FIDE Grand Prix 2017 winner Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, India strengthened with Vishwanathan Anand, and Ukraine with Vassily Ivanchuk and former FIDE World Chess Champion Ruslan Ponomariov on the team. Rounds Round 1 As is common in the first round of an Olympiad, several of the poorer federations were unable to field teams. Omitted from the pairings were Nigeria, Pakistan, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Somalia, Burundi and Congo. Maldives and Togo were unable to field the required three players and forfeited their matches. Reflecting the disparity in strength between the teams, there were no upsets on the team level; all the higher ranked teams won. The majority of matches ended in 4–0 score lines, although several teams conceded draws. The biggest upset of the round was the defeat of Chinese grandmaster Li Chao, who misplayed a drawn endgame against Morocco's Mohamed-Mehdi Aithmidou. Another grandmaster to suffer a defeat was the Canadian Aman Hambleton, who lost to the Nepalese player Rijendra Rajbhandari. The best game prize, awarded each round by a committee headed by Susan Polgar, was awarded to Davit Maghalashvili of the Georgia 2 team for a spectacular combination against Renato Frick of Liechtenstein, who resigned rather than allow the combination to be played out. Round 2 Amid reports that the Pakistan team had been prevented from leaving their country due to internal politics, all the teams except Pakistan were paired for the second round. On the top board, the top-seeded team from the United States struggled against Georgia's number three team, who were rated on average over 300 Elo lower – only Wesley So was able to score the full point. The second-seeded Russian team also conceded two draws against Ireland, Russian-born grandmaster Alexander Baburin holding Sergey Karjakin on the top board while IM David Fitzsimmons held Dmitry Jakovenko on board 4. An upset occurred