2026 Chess Olympiad Round 8: Germany Ends Uzbekistan’s Streak; China Leads Women’s

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“I can’t remember such a huge win and such a good position for our team. With three rounds to go, we have all the chances in the world!” – Rasmus Svane after scoring a win vs. Uzbekistan on board four.#ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/K4VPe8AiRn

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 24, 2026

His board was the first to reach a decisive position, and from there the two teams had to adjust. Black’s 15…Nf4 was the move that startled Vokhidov, who spent three of his 52 minutes to play the losing move 16.Be4??, when indeed 16.Qf3 existed and the tactics worked for White. Thanks to the “extremely lucky” blunder (per Rasmus Svane), Black won a clean exchange for nothing. 

At this point, the brother Frederik Svane said he didn’t know whether to play for a win or a draw on board three, especially as his position was extremely unclear. He said, “I had no idea what was going on, but it kind of looked good for me because all my pieces were developed.” Ultimately, he launched a kingside attack that promised an advantage after the desperado 16.Nxf7!. With this win, he sits at a 2811 performance and is the highest board three performer in the tournament with 6.5/8.

GM Rafael Leitao analyzes the Game of the Day below.

Uzbekistan now needed two wins to equalize the match. Sindarov was winning against Bluebaum, but GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov had a pawn-down endgame and no chance at all to defeat GM Vincent Keymer. He was, in fact, fortunate even to hold the draw as the match was beyond saving. Sindarov won a nice heavy-piece endgame with equal pawns but a much safer king.

You can watch GM Peter Svidler’s recap of the entire match in the 10-minute recap video below.

Sindarov’s performance rating of 2864 is impressive, but it’s not the highest on board two. GM Jorden van Foreest is on 6.5/7 with an incredible 2972 performance, the highest in the tournament so far on any board. The Netherlands drew Armenia 2-2 after Van Foreest’s win against GM Robert Hovhannisyan canceled out the loss on board three in GM Loek van Wely vs. GM Shant Sargsyan.

Hovhannisyan played an interesting exchange sacrifice, but things turned around when he captured the pawn on d4 with his knight. Van Foreest found a forcing way to break through on the queenside and even underpromoted to a knight on his way to winning the game.

Both Armenia and the Netherlands are among the teams on 13 points, and we saw another draw between India vs. Azerbaijan after all four games ended in draws. In the last game to end, GM Gukesh Dommaraju had, according to the engine, a winning endgame (with equal material) against GM Mahammad Muradli on board three, but didn’t make progress and settled for a draw.

The U.S. put up a monstrous 3.5-0.5 score against Serbia to stay in the hunt for gold, with wins by GMs Fabiano Caruana, Hans Niemann, and Awonder Liang (his second win in a row) against GMs Alexey Sarana, Aleksandar Indjic, and Velimir Ivic.

The best story was on board two, where Niemann was following a game of GM Levon Aronian vs. GM Magnus Carlsen in 2017—except that allowing the exchange sacrifice on a3, just like Carlsen did, is a mistake! White was better out of the opening, but Niemann managed nevertheless to sacrifice his queen and outplay his opponent in the middlegame.

Aronian told Chess.com that, of course, he recognized the game, and also understood that Niemann was repeating Carlsen’s mistakes. “I think he just got lucky that his opponent didn’t know the line,” said Aronian as Niemann walked past the interview.

Mike: “But [Hans] turned it around. What does that explain about his resilience in the event?”
Levon: “I think he just got lucky his opponent didn’t know the line!” (as Hans walks by the interview)#ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/Mm0ik7bybI

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 24, 2026

Caruana, by the way, won with a beautiful queen trap.

With one win by GM Wei Yi against GM Szymon Gumularz on board two, and draws on the rest of the boards, China defeated Poland 2.5-1.5 to reach the same score of 13. Wei, who currently has a 2842 performance rating, finished his game with a petite (and very temporary) queen sacrifice.

Finally, Uzbekistan 2 is the last team on 13 points, after a tight win over England 2.5-1.5, with GM Khumoyun Begmuratov scoring the one win on board four against GM Daniel Fernandez. 

There are nine teams on 12 points, with Turkiye having the best tiebreaks. They beat Canada 2.5-1.5, and their board one GM Yagiz Erdogmus so far has the best performance among the top board players, a 2893 TPR, at the age of 15.

On Friday, third seed Uzbekistan will play the top seed U.S., while Germany, the other team on 14 points, faces India. It’s sure to be one of the top-three critical rounds in the tournament.

Round 9 Pairings: Top 10 Open

Women: China Grabs Sole Lead As Savitha Saves India With 7/7

It was incredibly tight at the top in round eight, with almost all matches decided by a single game. 

China has taken the sole lead, with only six teams now within two points. 

Women’s Standings After Round 8: Top 20

The top-four seeds clashed in round eight of the Women’s Chess Olympiad, with fourth seed China grabbing a crucial win over second seed Georgia. Three games were drawn, with the match decided by a spectacular win on the bottom board for Zhai, who at 30 is the “veteran” on the Chinese team and a player who already has an Olympiad team gold medal from the 2018 edition.

She pounced when Javakhishvili, Georgia’s hero in round seven, grabbed a poisoned piece in a fantastically complicated position.

GM Bella Khotenashvili was the only player who looked to have some chances of leveling the score, but the youngest player on the Chinese team, 16-year-old IM Lu Miaoyi, had everything under control in the endgame—giving up two pawns to create a fortress.