Uzbekistan, the host nation, won the open gold medals at the 2026 Olympiad, the biennial chess international team tournament, at Samarkand last week in the style of the legendary Soviet grandmasters of long ago. India, the defending champions, were second, Germany a surprise third, and the top-seeded United States fourth. The hosts led almost from start to finish, with world No 5 Nodirbek Abdusattorov and the world title challenger Javokhir Sindarov their top-board powerhouses.
The team recovered swiftly from a single defeat by Germany, and were particularly impressive in crushing Armenia by 3.5-0.5 in the penultimate round. The Uzbekistan government rewarded each of the five players with $200,000 (£178,000), plus $50,000 for the coach Rustam Kasimdzhanov. India performed in line with their seeding.
Putting the world champion, Gukesh Dommaraju, on board four boosted his results but also underlined that Sindarov is the favourite for the coming world championship match. Gukesh was exposed in the final rounds when he was outplayed against both Germany, although he won that game fortuitously, and Hungary. The final leading scores were: Uzbekistan 20/22 match points; India and Germany 18; USA, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Hungary 17; China, France, Spain, Ukraine and England 16 (206 teams competed).
England’s creditable 12th place, one below their seeding, would have been still higher if a third player had performed at the level of the nine-time British champion Michael Adams, 54, and the Spectator chess columnist Luke McShane, 42, who were both in contention for individual medals right up to the final round. England’s women were 15th against their seeding of 20th, and the combined performance was the best since at least 2018, and probably since 1990. Russia/USSR, which monopolised Olympiad golds in the second half of the 20th century, have been banned from the last three competitions due to the invasion of Ukraine.
If allowed to take part, a team of Ian Nepomniachtchi, Andrey Esipenko, Daniil Dubov, Vladislav Artemiev and Alexander Grischuk would have been contenders. The potential of Turkey’s Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus stands out. The 15-year-old won the individual silver medal unbeaten and has advanced to No 17 in the live ratings, a similar level to Bobby Fischer at that age and well ahead of current world No 1 Carlsen when he was 15.
Here he defeats a rival prodigy, Argentina’s Faustino Oro. China won the women’s Olympiad ahead of Kazakhstan, India and the US, and did so with its B team. World champion Ju Wenjun, world No 1 Hou Yifan, former title challenger Tan Zhongyi and world No 3 Lei Tingjie all stayed at home, but their substitutes, led by world No 4 Zhu Jiner and 16-year-old Lu Miaoyi, proved highly effective.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
