46th World Chess Olympiad Opens in Samarkand with Kazakhstan Contending for Gold
- The 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad opens in Samarkand, featuring 398 teams and 1,974 players competing across 11 rounds under classical time controls, according to reports from infohub.kz and...
- Kazakhstan enters the women's competition as the runner-up from the 2024 Olympiad in Budapest, according to infohub.kz.
- The open tournament features top international grandmasters including Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So of the United States, Levon Aronian of Armenia, Hans Niemann of the United States, and...
The 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad opens in Samarkand, featuring 398 teams and 1,974 players competing across 11 rounds under classical time controls, according to reports from infohub.kz and uz.kursiv.media. The tournament runs through Sept. 27, 2026, and brings together nearly 2,000 chess players from around the globe.
Kazakhstan Squads Enter Samarkand Tournaments
Kazakhstan enters the women’s competition as the runner-up from the 2024 Olympiad in Budapest, according to infohub.kz. The team is seeded high among global contenders. India enters as the champion with a strong roster. Other top seeds in the women’s division include Georgia, China, Kazakhstan, and the United States, while the men’s and women’s teams from Russia were not admitted to the tournament, infohub.kz reports. Grandmaster Bibisara Assaubayeva leads the Kazakhstan women’s team on the top board. The 22-year-old comes off a strong season that included winning the Norway Chess tournament, placing third at the Cairns Cup, and finishing second in the tournament of candidates for the world chess crown, per infohub.kz. Meanwhile, 26-year-old grandmaster Denis Makhnev serves as the first board for the Kazakhstan men’s squad, which holds the 34th seed out of 208 teams in the open section, according to infohub.kz.
Global Stars and Open Section Contenders
The open tournament features top international grandmasters including Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So of the United States, Levon Aronian of Armenia, Hans Niemann of the United States, and Javokhir Sindarov of Uzbekistan, according to uz.kursiv.media. The United States holds the top starting seed in the open section, followed by the 2024 champion Indian team featuring Gukesh Dommaraju, and the host nation Uzbekistan led by Sindarov, as reported by infohub.kz. Teams play across 11 rounds using the Swiss system, with matches contested on four boards and one reserve player per squad, according to infohub.kz and uz.kursiv.media. The time control requires 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes, with a 30-second increment added from the very first move. Teams earn two match points for a win and one for a draw.
FIDE Congress Elections and Side Events
Alongside the tournament matches, the FIDE General Assembly will convene on Sept. 26 to elect a new president to lead the International Chess Federation for the next four years, according to infohub.kz and uz.kursiv.media. Three candidate slates are running for the leadership post: Jan-Henrik Buttner alongside Malcolm Pein, Vadim Rosenstein alongside Gordon Tang, and Timur Turlov alongside former world champion Viswanathan Anand, as detailed by infohub.kz and uz.kursiv.media. The gathering also features the third FIDE Chess Olympiad for People with Disabilities, drawing 41 teams, according to uz.kursiv.media. Additionally, FIDE will host its first FIDE Excellence Awards to recognize achievements in chess education, tournament organization, and community development.