The women's event at the 44th Chess Olympiad was held from 29 July to 9 August 2022. It was contested by a record number of 162 teams, representing 160 nations. India, as host nation, fielded three teams. A total of 799 players participated in the women's event.
Ukraine won the gold medal in the Women's event to claim their second gold in the Women's event after having previously won the event in 2006. Polish player Oliwia Kiołbasa had the highest individual score in the Women's event, scoring 9½ of a possible 11 points with a performance rating of 2565. Other players who won individual gold medals include Pia Cramling of Sweden on board one with 9½ out of 11 and a performance rating of 2532, Nino Batsiashvili of Georgia on board two who scored 7½ out of 10 with a performance rating of 2504, Bat-Erdene Mungunzul of Mongolia on board four who scored 7½ out of 10 with a performance rating of 2460, and Jana Schneider of Germany as a reserve player with 9 out of 10 points and a performance rating of 2414.
Competition format and calendar The tournament was played in a Swiss system format. The time control for all games was 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, after which an additional 30 minutes were granted and increment of 30 seconds per move was applied from the first move. Players were permitted to offer a draw at any time. A total of 11 rounds were played, with all teams playing in every round.
In each round, four players from each team faced four players from another team; teams were permitted one reserve player who could be substituted between rounds. The four games were played simultaneously on four boards, scoring 1 game point for a win and ½ game point for a draw. The scores from each game were summed together to determine which team won the round. Winning a round was worth 2 match points, regardless of the game point margin, while drawing a round was worth one match point. Teams were ranked in a table based on match points. Tie-breakers for the table were i) the Sonneborn-Berger system; ii) total game points scored; iii) the sum of the match points of the opponents, excluding the lowest one.
Tournament rounds started on 29 July and ended with the final round on 9 August. All rounds began at 15:00 IST (UTC+5:30), except for the final round which began at 10:00 IST (UTC+5:30). There was one rest day at the tournament—on 4 August—after the sixth round.
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Teams and players The Women's event was contested by a record number of 162 teams, representing 160 nations. India, as host nation, fields three teams.
The women's tournament was short of seven out of the ten top players according to the FIDE rating list published in July 2022, with only the Muzychuk sisters—former Women's World Champion Mariya and Anna—and Nana Dzagnidze participating. The highest rated player in the world Hou Yifan, the current Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun and the former Women's World Champion Tan Zhongyi were missing the Olympiad due to China's withdrawal, whereas former Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk and top-ten rated Alexandra Goryachkina and Kateryna Lagno did not play because of Russia's suspension. Former Women's World Champions Anna Ushenina played for her native Ukraine.
The absence of Russia and China, which had together won the gold medal at nine out of the eleven last Olympiads, put the host nation India as the first seed with an average rating of 2486. The team consisted of Humpy Koneru and Harika Dronavalli on the top boards, as well as R Vaishali, Tania Sachdev and Bhakti Kulkarni. Ukraine with the Muzychuk sisters, Anna Ushenina, Nataliya Buksa and Iulija Osmak had an average rating of 2478 as second-seeded team, while Georgia with Nana Dzagnidze, Lela Javakhishvili, Nino Batsiashvili, Meri Arabidze and Salome Melia came in third place with an average pre-tournament rating of 2475 points. Other contenders for a medal included Poland with Alina Kashlinskaya, who switched from the Russian to the Polish Chess Federation, playing on board one, France led by Marie Sebag on the top board, Azerbaijan, the United States and Germany.
Rounds
Round 1 The first round in the women's event started with former World Champion Viswanathan Anand making the opening move in Anna Muzychuk's game on board one of the match between Ukraine and South Africa. There were no surprising results in the opening match day and a total of 70 out of 79 matches resulted in maximum victories. The top-ranked team of the host nation India managed to score a maximum victory against Tajikistan after Tania Sachdev as Black on the third board needed 103 moves to squeeze out a win in an endgame with a pair of Bishops and fixed pawn structure on the King's side. In the same match, Koneru Humpy on board one played one of the best games of the day with a tactical vision that eight-time Russian Chess Champion Peter Svidler described as "incredibly good". Of the other pre-tournament favourites, Ukraine, Georgia, Poland, France, Azerbaijan, United States, Germany, Armenia and Kazakhstan all swept their opponents.
Round 2
The favourites generally managed to score their second match victories even though there were some unexpected results on the individual boards. A total of 40 teams scored their second match wins and 11 teams, including France, Azeribaijan and Armenia, snatched their second 4–0 victories. On the first table, India beat Argentina 3½–½ thanks to the wins achieved by Vaishali Rameshbabu, Tania Sachdev and Bhakti Kulkarni on the boards from two to four, whereas Koneru Humpy was held to a draw with the White pieces by Marisa Zuriel on the top board. Ukraine defeated Turkey 3–1 on the second table with victories scored by Anna Ushenina, Nataliya Buksa and Iulija Osmak, while Mariya Muzychuk lost her game to Ekaterina Atalik on the top board. Georgian players had a hard battle against Lithuania but finally pulled off a minimal victory. Meri Arabidze lost her game with the Black pieces against Gabija Šimkūnaitė on the lowest board, while Lela Javakhishvili settled for a draw against Kamile Baginskaite. However, the Georgian team scored wins in the games with the White pieces played by Nana Dzagnidze and Salome Melia on the first and the third boards, respectively.
The biggest upset of the day perhaps happened in the match between Ecuador and Slovenia where the South American team narrowly defeated their opponents as a result of the wins scored on the second and third boards. On board three, Teja Vidic could have kept the game balanced against Josselyne Peñafiel had she exchanged queens at the right time, but she misplaced her Rook and allowed her opponent to get a winning endgame (see diagram). Pia Cramling needed only nine moves to beat Knarik Mouradian after her opponent blundered a piece early in the game; Sweden completed a 4–0 sweep of Lebanon.
A memorable moment of the day was the first win by the youngest participant in the Olympiad, eight-year-old Randa Seder of Palestine, who won her game against unrated Mohamed Fahima Ali Mohamed of Comoros.
Round 3
The top six seeds have all won their matches in the third round. India defeated England with a 3–1 scoreline thanks to the victories scored by R. Vaishali and Bhakti Kulkarni with the White pieces. Ukraine swept Slovakia wherein Mariya Muzychuk recovered from her second-round loss and beat Zuzana Borošová on the top board. On the third table, Georgia had a tough match against the Czech Republic, with Nino Batsiashvili scoring the only win over Joanna Worek to snatch a 2½–1½ victory for her team.FIDE Things could have gone worse for Georgia had Anna Koubova not misplayed the rook endgame against Meri Arabidze (see diagram). Poland and France scored 3–1 victories against Vietnam and Italy with the wins scored on the boards where their players had the White pieces.
Mongolia achieved a 3–1 victory over the favoured team of the United States, which was considered to be one of the main surprises of the day. The key victories for the Mongolian team have come on the lower boards where Turmunkh Munkhzul and Bat-Erdene Mungunzul won over Carissa Yip and Tatev Abrahamyan, respectively. Estonia produced another surprise in this round by edging out Armenia 2½–1½. Mai Narva on the top board defeated Elina Danielian, while all other games on the lower boards were drawn.
Round 4
A total of eight teams—India, Ukraine, Georgia, Poland, France, Azerbaijan, India-2 and Romania—scored their fourth match victories in this round. On the top table, India edged out Hungary 2½–1½ with only one decisive game on the fourth table where Tania Sachdev fought a hard battle to win the game. The leading team after three rounds Bulgaria, which dropped only a half point in the previous rounds, was not able to stop Ukraine. Anna Muzychuk and Anna Ushenina secured a minimal victory for their team after scoring the decisive win over Gergana Peycheva and Beloslava Krasteva on boards two and three, respectively. Ushenina managed to grind out a victory from a drawn rook endgame after her opponent made mishandled the position. Georgia cruised to the fourth consecutive after beating India-3 by 3–1. P. V. Nandhidhaa's win against Nino Batsiashvili was all that the third team of the host nation could do, whereas Eesha Karavade lost to Nana Dzagnidze, Sahithi Varshini to Lela Javakhishvili and Bodda Pratyusha to Salome Melia on the other boards.
Romania, led by Irina Bulmaga, surprised the eight-seeded German team thanks to the wins scored by Mihaela Sandu and Alessia-Mihaela Ciolacu on the second and third boards, respectively. Ciolacu outplayed Hanna Marie Klek in an endgame with two rooks and a knight versus two rooks and a bishop. A dramatic match was played between France and Serbia, which ended up with a narrow 2½–1½ win in favour of the French team. However, things could have gone in the opposite direction had Jovana Erić not missed a decisive blow in the game she lost to Sophie Milliet (see diagram). Mongolia remained undefeated after securing a 2–2 tie against Kazakhstan wherein the teams exchanged one win each on the second and fourth boards. Poland did not have any problems and dismantled the Netherlands by 3½–½, while the second Indian team was also victorious in this round after edging out Estonia with the only win scored by Vantika Agrawal.
Round 5
The only teams with five match victories after the fifth round are India, Georgia and Romania. India kept the perfect score by beating France 2½–1½ thanks to Tania Sachdev, who defeated Andreea Navrotescu on the fourth board and proved to be the crucial player on the team as in the previous round. The winning margin for the host team could have been larger had R Vaishali converted a clear advantage but misplayed the position and eventually settled for a draw. Georgia dominated the second Indian team by 3–1 with two wins on the lower boards where Lela Javakhishvili outplayed Soumya Swaminathan and Meri Arabidze defeated Divya Deshmukh. On the other boards, Vantika Agarwal fought hard to save the game against Nana Dzagnidze, while Padmini Rout made a draw with Nino Batsiashvili.