With the striking exception of El Salvador (94th seed) upsetting Cuba (44th seed), the favorite teams won their matches in round two of the 46th Chess Olympiad 2026. It wasn’t smooth sailing, as Uzbekistan, the United States, India, the Netherlands, and Hungary found themselves to be in very real danger against Peru, Mongolia, Indonesia, North Macedonia, and Colombia, respectively—even if they went on to win their matches. World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju, after a draw with IM Satria Duta Cahaya, has dropped under 2700 on the live rating list.
While most favorites continued to cruise in round two of the 2026 FIDE Women’s Chess Olympiad, we got the first major team upset, with second seed Georgia held to a 2-2 draw by 48th seed Montenegro. GM Bela Khotenashvili’s loss to 300-point-lower-rated WFM Alena Skvortsova looked like an isolated incident until IM Lela Javakhishvili lost a winning position against WIM Aleksandra Milovic. Further down the field, the Czech Republic (36) was held to a draw by the UAE (83), while Slovakia (37) and Norway (46) lost to Tajikistan (84) and Kenya (93), respectively.
Round three is on Friday, September 18, starting at 6:15 a.m. ET / 12:15 CEST / 3:45 p.m. IST.
Open: Gukesh Drops Under 2700, But India Wins Match
On paper, the favorites simply advanced, but Peru, Indonesia, North Macedonia, and Colombia on the top-10 boards lost by a single point in matches that were expected to be more lopsided. In a few cases, the underdog had a legitimate shot at winning, as we will see.
Round 2 Results | Top 10
Although Uzbekistan won convincingly 3.5-0.5 over Peru, early on it looked like Peruvian board three IM Steven Rojas might score the first win against GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov. 19…dxc4 would have reached a decisive, opposite-color bishop middlegame—but after 19…Qd7?, played in the game, it took Vokhidov just four moves to right the ship and win the game.
On board two, World Championship Challenger GM Javokhir Sindarov played a brilliancy against IM Diego Quillas, with the penultimate move certainly being one for the puzzle books. The Uzbek star sacrificed his queen for a king move, but one that completed the checkmating net around the white king. GM Rafael Leitao goes over all the action in the Game of the Day below.
With that win, Uzbekistan had already cleared the hurdle of round two, but GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov delivered a win against GM Jorge Cori for good measure.
In contrast, India advanced with a single win and three draws against Indonesia—and they could have lost on that board! Three pawns down, GM Nihal Sarin was indeed losing against IM Arif Abdul Hafiz, nearly 300 points lower-rated, but the moves were extremely difficult for Black to find. Nihal won with a counterattack, dropping the exchange sacrifice 28.Rxc6! like a hammer, a crushing blow to expose the enemy king for the rest of the game.
Indonesia held draws on all other boards, nearly overcoming the chasm in average rating: 2428 against 2720. With a draw on board three, the world champion fell under 2700 on the live rating list for the first time since he crossed it in 2022—though, for the team result, a draw was completely fine.
Gukesh’s opponent spoke to Chess.com’s FM Mike Klein before the game and said, “Hopefully I’ll have a good game against him!” He’d played GM Magnus Carlsen online, but it was his first over-the-board game against a world champion. “I just tried to keep my position stable. I thought there were many moments where he could have pushed for more, but surprisingly he didn’t,” he told FIDE.
I thought there were many moments where he could have pushed for more.
—Satria Duta Cahaya
The United States was another favorite in early trouble as Mongolia’s board four IM Khuyagtsogt Itgelt struck first blood against American GM Awonder Liang.
Perhaps it was overambition, but Liang’s 30…f6?, which opened up his second rank, was a single and decisive mistake. White took over the a-file and won with shocking ease.
GMs Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian delivered two wins, with GM Hans Niemann drawing, to nevertheless win the match.
Like Sindarov, GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, and Caruana, France’s GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is another board-one player who sat out the first round but came in refreshed. Against Bosnia and Herzegovina’s IM Sanjin Culum, his 14.Nc3! was a lovely move that left his pawn on f2 hanging, and he followed it up by ignoring a discovered check with 15.Na4!. He won by giving back material for an attack in the center of the board.
France won that match 3.5-0.5.
North Macedonia was another underdog that put up a great fight, against the Netherlands. Their IM Nikola Nikolovski upset the struggling GM Casper Schoppen on board four, who in the previous round drew a player rated 1896. There must be an error with the transmission of moves, as it appears the Dutch GM rejected a mate in five moves (with checks on every move) to inexplicably allow a winning counterattack.
GM Anish Giri scored the match point for the Netherlands, outplaying IM Emil Risteski in the rook endgame on board one after the latter played the wrong king move.
Like India, Hungary only squeezed past Colombia with a single win and three draws. GM Benjamin Gledura redeemed his loss in the previous round by squeezing water from stone against IM Esteban Valderrama in the rook endgame. GM Gleb Dudin, on board four, critically saved a lost position against GM Cristhian Camilo Rios.
As far as individual upsets go, Estonian IM Ilja Sirosh’s approximately 250-point upset against legendary Ukrainian GM Vasyl Ivanchuk stands out the most. Ivanchuk found a brilliant piece sacrifice to outplay his opponent earlier in the game, but he must have been shocked to see the brilliant counterblow 21…Nd4!! appear on the board, turning the tables.
Other important upsets were scored by El Salvador’s FMs Carlos Morales, Daniel Arias, and Santiago Jose Guevara Ruiz, who all beat their grandmaster opposition. The all-FM team, with an average rating of 2165, defeated Cuba’s 2467.
In another huge upset, Trinidad and Tobago’s FM Ryan Harper (2085) delivered GM Alexandr Fier’s (2537) second loss on board one, even if Brazil won 2.5-1.5. The Brazilian grandmaster played an unsound exchange sacrifice, and Harper made no mistakes in converting the advantage.
The pairings will only get more intense as the top seeds begin to clash.
Round 3 Pairings | Top 10
| No. | Seed | FED | Team | : | Team | FED | Seed |
| 1 | 27 | Austria | : | Uzbekistan *) | 3 | ||
| 2 | 25 | Denmark | : | United States of America | 1 | ||
| 3 | 2 | India | : | Italy | 26 | ||
| 4 | 4 | China | : | Bulgaria | 28 | ||
| 5 | 30 | Uzbekistan 2 | : | Germany | 5 | ||
| 6 | 6 | Netherlands | : | Australia | 32 | ||
| 7 | 33 | Switzerland | : | Azerbaijan | 7 | ||
| 8 | 8 | Hungary | : | Slovenia | 34 | ||
| 9 | 35 | Kazakhstan | : | France | 9 | ||
| 10 | 10 | Armenia | : | Sweden | 36 |
Women: Montenegro Shocks 2nd Seed Georgia
The favorites won the top 35 matches, with Georgia, Women’s Olympiad winners in 2008 and medalists in 2010, 2018, and 2022, the only exception.
Round two of the Women’s Chess Olympiad saw more stars join the fray, with the highest-rated player, China’s GM Zhu Jiner, almost the only top player yet to feature. There were winning individual and team starts for the likes of GM Divya Deshmukh (India), GM Anna Ushenina (Ukraine), GM Marie Sebag (France), GM Elisabeth Paehtz (Germany), GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (Switzerland), IM Nurgyul Salimova (Bulgaria), IM Stavroula Tsolakidou (Greece), and IM Carissa Yip, with Yip playing on top board as the USA defeated a strong Belgium team 4-0.
Yip was much better after WIM Hanne Goosens played 11.Ng3? and from the moment Black got in 14…c5! the outcome looked in little doubt.
GM Irina Krush, playing her 13th Olympiad, didn’t pretend to be thrilled to be playing on third board behind both Yip and IM Alice Lee, but she had no complaints.
Irina Krush on playing Board 3: “I definitely wouldn’t say I like it more. It’s kind of like the passing of time—eventually things change, but I wouldn’t say I dislike it either! You gotta be a team player & where it makes sense to put you for the team, that’s where you play.”… pic.twitter.com/Hsm13viX6X
— chess24 (@chess24com) September 17, 2026
GM Bibisara Assaubayeva, the second-highest-rated player in the event, had a frustrating 59-move draw against young WFM Milana Babic, but Kazakhstan wasn’t in danger as they overcame Bosnia and Herzegovina 3-1.
Another player whose campaign began in round two was WFM Anna Cramling, who was thrilled to be able to play with her mother and chess legend GM Pia Cramling.
Anna Cramling: “This is so amazing. I’ve told myself that every single year that I can play with my mum I’m going to play the Olympiad, because it’s so special!”#ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/K6aB7MbPcX
— chess24 (@chess24com) September 17, 2026
It looked like it would be a perfect start on the board as well, as Anna raced into a winning position against Paraguayan WFM Renata Mayeregger. Things got tougher, however, as Anna missed countless wins in a crazy position before finally losing—though Sweden still claimed a 2.5-1.5 victory.
One player who went from strength to strength, meanwhile, was 11-year-old FM Bodhana Sivanandan, who has moved from reserve board to top board for England over the course of two years. She vowed, “I want to stay at board one for the next few team events as well,” which feels like an ambition in little doubt.
11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan, Board 1 for England:
“In the 1st #ChessOlympiad I was the reserve player, and this time I’m the 1st board player, so it’s the opposite end of the table, but I’m still here to enjoy the Olympiad and playing people from all over the world!” pic.twitter.com/AA9mW8j6lZ
— chess24 (@chess24com) September 17, 2026
Sivanandan, the most promising women’s European chess prodigy, picked up a second win by defeating 14-year-old WFM Deborah Quickpen, the most promising African prodigy. Sivanandan explained why she didn’t go for a flashy win near the end: “In the game I saw the better-looking move, I couldn’t see a clear win, but with the move I played I could see exactly how to win, so I thought, why not just do the simpler option?”
The logic was flawless, as was the move—the strongest in the position!
There were some shocks for strong teams, including Turkmenistan’s Mahri Agamyradova defeating 385-point-higher-rated WGM Alicja Sliwicka, but in the end Poland dug out a 3-1 win. The one top seed to fail to gain two match points was Georgia, featuring a hugely experienced line-up still rated as second favorites to claim the title.
The spark for underdogs Montenegro was provided by Skvortsova, who sacrificed a pawn to infiltrate with her queen. It probably shouldn’t have worked, but Khotenashvili lost her way in the complications.
That was an unfortunate loss for one of Georgia’s star players, but they’d won on top and bottom boards, and Javakhishvili was winning a game she only needed to draw to give Georgia a match win. Strange things can happen in such situations, however, and Milovic, outrated by 356 points, managed to pull off an unlikely win.
That dropped point complicates Georgia’s potential path to medals, but there are still nine rounds to go.
Elsewhere we had to drop as far as the 36th match to find favorites Czech Republic held by the UAE, with WGM Joanna Worek’s 23.b4? walking into a fork from teenage star WGM Alserkal Essa.
One table lower and we had the first team loss by a favorite, with the Czech Republic’s neighbors Slovakia falling 2.5-1.5 to Tajikistan. There were three draws and one decisive game that could have featured a brilliant queen sac for WFM Viktoria Nadzamova but instead saw a win for 253-point-lower-rated Rukhshona Saidova.
There were more upsets lower down the standings, and we can expect the battle to get fiercer by the round. The pairings for round three include tougher opposition for the top teams, with GM Koneru Humpy vs. Tsolakidou one possibility as India takes on Greece.
Round 3 Women’s Pairings | Top 11
| No. | Seed | FED | Team | : | Team | FED | Seed |
| 1 | 13 | Uzbekistan | : | Indonesia | 35 | ||
| 2 | 1 | India | : | Greece | 24 | ||
| 3 | 3 | Kazakhstan | : | Slovenia | 25 | ||
| 4 | 26 | Turkiye | : | China | 4 | ||
| 5 | 5 | United States of America | : | Cuba | 27 | ||
| 6 | 28 | Argentina | : | Ukraine | 6 | ||
| 7 | 7 | Azerbaijan | : | Sweden | 29 | ||
| 8 | 30 | Iran | : | France | 8 | ||
| 9 | 9 | Poland | : | Latvia | 31 | ||
| 10 | 32 | Belarus | : | Germany | 10 | ||
| 11 | 11 | Bulgaria | : | Italy | 33 |
Colin McGourty contributed to this report.
The 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad is a massive team event for national federations that takes place every two years. In 2026 it’s being held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, with 11 rounds that run September 16-27. In Open and Women’s sections teams of five players compete in a Swiss system, with each match played over four boards. There are two match points for a win and one for a draw, with board points taken into account only if teams are tied. Players have 90 minutes per game, plus 30 minutes from move 40, with a 30-second increment per move.
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