The 46th Chess Olympiad is over

The 46th Chess Olympiad finished on 27 September 2026 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Eleven rounds, two sections, and teams from more than 200 federations. The hosts took the Open title for the second time. China took a seventh Women's title. The tables below are the final top tens, plus the individual board gold medals.

What the event was

FIDE held the Olympiad from 15 to 27 September 2026 at the Silk Road International Exhibition Centre in Samarkand. The opening and closing ceremonies were at the Boqiy Shahar amphitheatre in the Eternal City complex. Viswanathan Anand opened the event. The closing ceremony, on the evening of 27 September, is where the medals were given out.

Each section played 11 rounds on the Swiss system. A match is four boards. A team win is worth two match points, a draw one. When match points are equal, the Sonneborn–Berger tie-break decides the places, then game points. There was one rest day, 22 September, after round six. The final round started earlier than the others, at 11:00 local time.

The Open event had 206 teams. The Women's event had 189. Together they made this the largest Chess Olympiad so far. Russia did not play. Belarus was allowed back.

Open section: Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan finished on 20 match points from 10 wins and a single loss. That was two points clear of the field, and it is their second Olympiad gold after Chennai 2022. Captain Rustam Kasimdzhanov fielded Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Javokhir Sindarov, Nodirbek Yakubboev, Shamsiddin Vokhidov, and Mukhiddin Madaminov.

The only defeat came against Germany, in round eight. Along the way the hosts beat the United States, India, China, Hungary, and Armenia. In the last round a draw might have been enough, but they beat Ukraine 2.5–1.5. Madaminov scored the point that settled the match, and finished the event unbeaten on 5.5/7.

Abdusattorov played all 11 games on board one, scored 8.5 points, and posted a performance rating of 2869, the best in the Open section. His wins included Fabiano Caruana, Ding Liren, and Richárd Rapport. He also took the individual gold medal on board one.

India, the defending champions, took silver on 18 match points after a 2–2 draw with Hungary in the last round. Arjun Erigaisi beat Peter Leko. On the other side of that match, Gleb Dudin beat world champion Gukesh Dommaraju and later received the individual gold on the reserve board. Germany took bronze, also on 18, by beating the Netherlands 2.5–1.5. Matthias Blübaum won the board that decided it, against Jorden van Foreest. The United States, the top seeds, finished fourth on 17.

Open final standings

Top 10 after 11 rounds. W, D, and L are matches. MP is match points. TB1 is the Sonneborn–Berger tie-break. GP is game points.

India takes silver over Germany on the tie-break. Both finished on 18 match points and 28.5 game points.

Women's section: China

China won the Women's gold with 20 match points and no match defeat: nine wins and two draws. It is their seventh Olympiad title, and the first since 2018. The squad was Zhu Jiner, Song Yuxin, Lu Miaoyi, Yan Tianqi, and Zhai Mo. Hou Yifan, Ju Wenjun, Tan Zhongyi, and Lei Tingjie were not on the team.

China drew the two teams that finished next to them, India and Kazakhstan, and beat Georgia and Poland. In the last round they beat Vietnam 3–1. Zhu Jiner scored 7/9 on board one, with a performance of 2638, and took the individual gold. Lu Miaoyi scored 9.5/11 on board three.

Kazakhstan took silver on 18 match points, also undefeated, with seven wins and four draws. They drew Poland 2–2 in the last round. Elnaz Kaliakhmet's win on board four levelled that match, and she later took the individual gold on board four.

India, the United States, Poland, Armenia, and Mongolia all finished on 17. India had the best tie-break and took bronze, after a 2–2 draw with Georgia. Savitha Shri Baskar scored 9/10 on the reserve board and won that board's gold medal.

Women's final standings

Top 10 after 11 rounds. The tie-break is Sonneborn–Berger.

Five teams finished on 17 match points. India's tie-break of 424 puts them third, ahead of the United States on 418.

Individual board medals

Board medals go to the best performance ratings among players who played at least eight games. These are the gold medals.

Open

Women

On the Open silver medals, Yağız Kaan Erdoğmuş was second on board one with a performance of 2839. Gukesh took silver on board four. In the Women's event, Carissa Yip took silver on board one.

Gaprindashvili Cup

The Nona Gaprindashvili Cup goes to the federation with the best combined places in the Open and Women's standings. The places are added, and the lowest total wins. India was the only team on the podium in both events, second in the Open and third in the Women's, so the cup is theirs for the third Olympiad in a row.

The next Olympiad is the 47th, in Abu Dhabi in 2028. The flag was handed over at the end of the Samarkand ceremony.

Studying these games

The match scores are the headline. The useful part for a player is the games underneath them: Abdusattorov's board-one wins, Svane's run on board three, Zhu Jiner's score with a young Chinese team, and the positions where a 2.5–1.5 match was decided by one board.

Those games are hard to learn from a table. A master who has played this level of chess can show which plan actually mattered, and which line is worth putting in your own repertoire. Chess with Masters is where you book that kind of lesson with a titled coach, including work on the openings and structures that showed up in Samarkand.