Samarkand Olympiad Round 6: Nihal Blunders Queen As Uzbekistan Takes Sole Lead

Nihal Blunders Queen As Uzbekistan Takes Sole Lead; Indian Women Hit Back To Beat U.S.

With a shock win on board three against India, Uzbekistan has taken sole lead of the 46th Chess Olympiad 2026 after six rounds. GM Nihal Sarin was better on board and clock against GM Nodirbek Yakubboev, but he blundered his queen in the consequential game with half an hour on his clock. Germany, the only other team on a perfect score, lost to China 3-1 after GM Ding Liren beat GM Vincent Keymer on board one and GM Xu Xiangyu beat GM Alexander Donchenko on board four. China is just one point behind Uzbekistan, as is Armenia, who overcame Iran 2.5-1.5.

China and Kazakhstan are the only teams on a perfect 12/12 after round six of the 2026 FIDE Women's Chess Olympiad, giving them a two-point lead over an 11-team chasing pack. China overwhelmed round-five heroes Poland 3.5-0.5, while IM Alua Nurman's single win gave Kazakhstan a 2.5-1.5 victory over Azerbaijan. India scored a crucial 3-1 bounce-back victory over the U.S., with IMs Savitha Shri and Vantika Agrawal grabbing the wins. Second seed Georgia is also right back in contention after defeating hosts Uzbekistan 3.5-0.5 to join India and co. on 10 points.

After a rest day, round seven is on Wednesday, September 23, starting at 6:15 a.m. ET / 12:15 CEST / 3:45 p.m. IST.

Open: Home Team Uzbekistan Leads

Uzbekistan, China, Armenia, and the United States won on the top five boards. Readers will notice the Netherlands 4-0 sweep against Israel, but the match was won by forfeit (more on this at the end of this section).

Round 6 Results | Open Top 10

Full results

That leaves the Netherlands as one of 11 teams on 10 points, with China and Armenia on 11, and Uzbekistan as the only team on 12.

Open Standings After Round 6: Top 28

# Seed Fed Team + = - Points TB1 1 3 Uzbekistan 6 0 0 12 141 2 4 China 5 1 0 11 138 3 10 Armenia 5 1 0 11 108 4 9 France 4 2 0 10 116.5 5 6 Netherlands 5 0 1 10 114.5 6 14 Turkiye 5 0 1 10 114 7 2 India 5 0 1 10 113 8 19 Greece 5 0 1 10 111 9 5 Germany 5 0 1 10 108 10 11 England 4 2 0 10 106 11 28 Bulgaria 5 0 1 10 105.5 12 7 Azerbaijan 4 2 0 10 104 13 30 Uzbekistan 2 5 0 1 10 99 14 1 United States of America 5 0 1 10 99 15 18 Iran 4 1 1 9 116 16 23 Romania 3 3 0 9 114 17 20 Czech Republic 4 1 1 9 104.5 18 16 Poland 4 1 1 9 101 19 38 Slovakia 4 1 1 9 100 20 39 Belarus 4 1 1 9 97 21 15 Serbia 4 1 1 9 97 22 27 Austria 4 1 1 9 96 23 37 Lithuania 4 1 1 9 95 24 36 Sweden 4 1 1 9 95 25 65 Turkmenistan 4 1 1 9 93 26 35 Kazakhstan 4 1 1 9 92.5 27 32 Australia 4 1 1 9 76.5 28 8 Hungary 4 1 1 9 70.5

The winners of the 2022 and 2024 Chess Olympiads, Uzbekistan and India, were finally paired as two of the three teams on a perfect 10/10 match points. Each of their encounters is among the most memorable clashes, if not the most memorable, in recent Olympiad history.

Captain Rustam Kasimdzhanov celebrates a historic win with Yakubboev. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Boards one, two, and four all ended in heavy-piece endgame draws. GMs Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Gukesh Dommaraju were a pawn up in rook endgames against GMs Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Shamsiddin Vokhidov, but with no advantage. GM Javokhir Sindarov vs. GM Arjun Erigaisi ended in another endgame with all the heavy pieces.

Team Uzbekistan leaving the venue. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Board three was the decider, and it was the last board in play when the pre-move-40 time scramble approached. Dropping under 10 minutes by move 31, Yakubboev was up against a speed-chess specialist. Nihal had 38 minutes, so only one of them would be playing blitz. Or so it seemed. Yakubboev told Chess.com:

It was at some moment very, very emotional. It was a tough match, my opponent surprised me with the opening choice, but then he tried to push on my time and I got time trouble, but in time trouble he hurried and missed on 37...Nf5??, this beautiful tactic. Otherwise, I was worse and almost lost the game, but I am happy he missed that.

I was worse and almost lost the game, but I am happy he missed that. —Nodirbek Yakubboev

Nodirbek Yakubboev greeted like a hero by his team after winning the match-deciding game against India!#ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/P4rZcdXBOY — chess24 ( @chess24com ) September 21, 2026

The beautiful and winning move 38.Ne6!! is likely the move of the tournament so far, forcing Black to give up his queen. GM Rafael Leitao takes a look at this great turnaround, which is our Game of the Day.

GM Peter Svidler also made a recap for FIDE, if you prefer a nine-minute video on the game.

Germany, the third leader, was toppled by China this round, after losing on boards one and four, with draws on two and three. Xu, on board four, outplayed Donchenko with two bishops against two knights; Ding, against Keymer on board one, traded into a winning opposite-color bishop endgame (with rooks). The finishing 40.f5!, a pawn sacrifice followed by another with 41.h5!, was the hammer blow.

China vs. Germany in round six. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Armenia, after defeating Iran 2.5-1.5, is on the same score as China with five match wins and one draw. The team has finished in the top-10 in all Olympiads they have played since the year 2000 (they boycotted the 2016 Olympiad in Azerbaijan).

We saw draws on top three boards, but board four GM Gabriel Sargissian scored the match-winning point against IM Reza Mahdavi. White's pieces flooded into the seventh and eighth ranks, but more in an attempt to save each other rather than coordinate an attack. Black pushed a passed pawn down the central d-file, and White could not untangle in time.

England held an incredibly close match against France, with GM Michael Adams scoring a needed win against GM Etienne Bacrot on board two to offset GM Gawain Maroroa Jones' loss on board three against GM Marc'Andria Maurizzi.

England vs. France. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Another clutch victory was scored by GM Hans Niemann for the United States against Norway's GM Frode Urkedal, which won the match 2.5-1.5—a fantastic redemption for the American player who lost the decisive game against Germany in round five. It was an incredibly tense encounter that saw both sides trading game-changing errors in a complicated endgame. After bouncing from a draw to a win and back several times, Niemann landed a lethal blow on move 68 after a one-move blunder.

Yet another extremely close encounter was that between Turkiye and Switzerland. GM Emre Can won on board four against FM Colin Federer (no relation to the tennis player Roger Federer), but Turkiye's board one GM Yagiz Erdogmus was suffering against Swiss GM Sebastian Bogner. Had Bogner won that game, Switzerland would have drawn the match 2-2, but two pawns down and with under a minute, the 15-year-old Turkish prodigy turned the game around.

The Netherlands' victory over Israel by forfeit to land on 10/12 points has sparked debate on social media. Israel proposed playing their round-six match with the Netherlands at night after Yom Kippur ended, or on the rest day, but the Netherlands were within their right to decline and be awarded two match points. As GM Peter Heine Nielsen wrote on X, the scheduling conflict will have an impact on medal contenders, especially as the 4-0 score helps the Netherlands' tiebreaks.

From a sporting perspective, we can not have 4-0 forfeits, in matches with medal contenders.

Due to the current tiebreak-system it gives them a tremendeous advantage, on the expense of not the team that forfeited, but the other contenders for medals. — Peter Heine Nielsen ( @PHChess ) September 21, 2026

The Israeli Chess Federation posted a letter from FIDE that confirmed that the schedule of the Israeli team's matches "will be adjusted" to accommodate Yom Kippur. Gil Borochovsky, CEO of the Israel Chess Association, said, "FIDE did nothing to reduce the damage it caused. They could have at least tried to prevent a 4:0 score, which would greatly hurt us in the rankings later on. We will consider our steps - this will not pass in silence."

Uzbekistan's next match against China in round seven will have great implications for who medals this year. China won their last encounter in Budapest 2024, but right now the Uzbek team looks unstoppable. Can they keep it up?

Round 7 Pairings: Top 10 Open

No. Seed FED Team Pts MP Res. : Res. MP Pts Team Fed Seed 1 3 Uzbekistan *) 19½ 12 : 11 18½ China 4 2 10 Armenia 17 11 : 10 16 United States of America 1 3 11 England 16½ 10 : 10 16 India 2 4 5 Germany 16 10 : 10 17½ Turkiye 14 5 6 Netherlands 16 10 : 10 16½ Bulgaria 28 6 19 Greece 18 10 : 10 16½ Azerbaijan 7 7 30 Uzbekistan 2 16 10 : 10 17½ France 9 8 8 Hungary 12 9 : 9 15 Australia 32 9 15 Serbia 15 9 : 9 17 Kazakhstan 35 10 16 Poland 17 9 : 9 16½ Sweden 36

Women: China, Kazakhstan Still Perfect; India Bounces Back To Beat U.S.

There were no upsets on the top tables in the Women's Olympiad—unless you count the higher-seeded Netherlands and Serbia being held to draws—but there were hugely important results for the battle for medals.

Round 6 Results: Women's Top 10

Full results

China and Kazakhstan have broken two points clear of the pack, but, as the only teams on a perfect score, will face each other in round seven.

Women's Standings After Round 6: Top 27

# Seed FED Team + = - Points TB1 TB2 1 4 China 6 0 0 12 151.5 20.5 2 3 Kazakhstan 6 0 0 12 135.5 18.5 3 1 India 5 0 1 10 128 18.5 4 11 Bulgaria 5 0 1 10 124 19 5 10 Germany 5 0 1 10 116.5 16.5 6 17 Switzerland 4 2 0 10 116 18 7 16 Armenia 5 0 1 10 116 17.5 8 9 Poland 5 0 1 10 114 17 9 7 Azerbaijan 5 0 1 10 112 17.5 10 2 Georgia 4 2 0 10 109.5 18 11 8 France 5 0 1 10 103 19 12 15 Mongolia 5 0 1 10 98 16.5 13 6 Ukraine 5 0 1 10 96 16.5 14 5 United States of America 4 1 1 9 115 18 15 41 Estonia 4 1 1 9 110.5 18.5 16 14 Serbia 4 1 1 9 110.5 17 17 12 Netherlands 3 3 0 9 104.5 16.5 18 13 Uzbekistan 4 1 1 9 103 16.5 19 38 Canada 4 1 1 9 101 18 20 25 Slovenia 4 1 1 9 100.5 17.5 21 26 Turkiye 4 1 1 9 100 17 22 32 Belarus 4 1 1 9 100 17 23 24 Greece 4 1 1 9 94.5 16 24 18 Hungary 4 1 1 9 92 15 25 19 Spain 4 1 1 9 90.5 15 26 55 Turkmenistan 4 1 1 9 87 16 27 27 Cuba 4 1 1 9 80.5 15

Bulgaria, as with the Netherlands in the Open, got a 4-0 win over the Israeli team, taking them up into fourth place. Photo: Rafal Oleksiewicz/FIDE.

GMs Zhu Jiner and Bibisara Assaubayeva are the highest-rated women's players in Samarkand, and both faced the same scenario in round six—they were all but busted out of the opening but escaped with a draw, while their teammates helped them with a victory that maintained a perfect match score.

Zhu Jiner was in trouble vs. Oliwia Kiolbasa, but her team powered to a big win. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Zhu faced Polish IM Oliwia Kiolbasa, and misplayed a Sicilian so that she found herself unable to castle and trapped in a position with almost no moves. One slip by Kiolbasa, however, and Zhu could free herself and make a draw.

The match lurched in the direction of China when Poland's round-five hero, IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya, got into trouble in a razor-sharp position against 20-year-old IM Song Yuxin, who is now on 5.5/6. Song missed the first path to victory, but didn't make a mistake when given a second chance.

The other members of the Poland team needed to win on demand, but were playing difficult endgames—both stumbled into lost positions, with IM Lu Miaoyi defeating IM Klaudia Kulon and WIM Tianqi Yan beating GM Monika Socko. That made it a 3.5-0.5 victory for a Chinese team that came to the Olympiad without the immense talents of GMs Hou Yifan, Ju Wenjun, Lei Tingjie, and Tan Zhongyi.

Bibisara Assaubayeva continues to post modest results, while her team continues to win. Photo: Rafal Oleksiewicz/FIDE.

Assaubayeva's position out of the opening vs. WGM Govhar Beydullayeva was as miserable as Zhu's, and the most surprising detail is that it never really improved until Beydullayeva settled for a draw by repetition.

Here White played 21.Nc3?! rather than going for a more active plan of preparing to take on a6 and bring the knight to c7, ideally when a black piece had appeared on e8 to be forked. Still, the advantage never went away.

That allowed the match to be decided by IM Alua Nurman, who pounced on an endgame mistake by IM Gunay Mammadzada to clinch victory.

Kazakhstan took silver in 2024 despite being seeded just 10th, but this year, as Nurman explained, success would no longer be a surprise: "First of all, in the starting list we are third, so of course the chances are higher than it was before. Last time we were underdogs, but now everyone knows us and I think we have good chances, but we’ll see!"

Second seed Georgia had experienced a slow start to the Olympiad, with two early drawn matches, but they're undefeated and pulled off their most impressive victory yet in round six, defeating Uzbekistan 3.5-0.5 with wins for GMs Nino Batsiashvili, Bela Khotenashvili, and IM Lela Javakhishvili.

Georgia is right back in the battle for the podium. Photo: Rafal Oleksiewicz/FIDE.

Uzbekistan had taken a match point off the U.S. the day before, and the Americans' clash with India, who had been beaten by Poland, was perhaps the most anticipated clash of the day. It felt almost like the last-chance saloon, with Shri commenting, "Today’s round I was a bit nervous at the beginning because yesterday we lost, so if something goes wrong in this game the medal chances are getting very low."

The 19-year-old from Chennai needn't have worried, however, since she would end the day as a hero, moving to a perfect 5/5 on her Olympiad debut.

Shri inflicted a first loss on IM Rose Atwell, and although she missed an immediate knockout on move 21 it only allowed for a nice zugzwang at the very end.

On top board GM Koneru Humpy was rock-solid against IM Carissa Yip, GM Divya Deshmukh confidently became the first player to hold IM Alice Lee to a draw in Samarkand, and GM Irina Krush was left with the mission impossible of winning a pawn-down endgame against Vantika.

Irina Krush couldn't save the U.S. team. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Instead Vantika ground out a win to put the icing on a 3-1 cake for India.

Vantika after helping India to a 3-1 win over USA: "I just love returning to the Olympiad, playing for my country, fighting every game for a win, and I think I'll just continue doing that!"#ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/SKoxqHvsBV — chess24 ( @chess24com ) September 21, 2026

India is two points off the pace set by China and Kazakhstan, while the U.S. team, which started so powerfully, has a three-point deficit to make up to stay in the fight for gold.

India faces Germany in round seven, while the U.S. team gets Switzerland. The chasing pack may be hoping that the clash of the perfect teams, China vs. Kazakhstan, will end in a tie!

Ukraine narrowly beat England to remain two points off the lead, with the two prodigies drawing on top board. Photo: Rafal Oleksiewicz/FIDE.

Round 7 Pairings: Women's Top 10

Match Seed Fed Team Pts MP Res : Res MP Pts Team Fed Seed 1 13 Uzbekistan *) 16½ 9 : 9 17½ Slovenia 25 2 4 China 20½ 12 : 12 18½ Kazakhstan 3 3 10 Germany 16½ 10 : 10 18½ India 1 4 9 Poland 17 10 : 10 18 Georgia 2 5 6 Ukraine 16½ 10 : 10 19 Bulgaria 11 6 16 Armenia 17½ 10 : 10 17½ Azerbaijan 7 7 8 France 19 10 : 10 16½ Mongolia 15 8 5 United States of America 18 9 : 10 18 Switzerland 17 9 26 Turkiye 17 9 : 9 16½ Netherlands 12 10 14 Serbia 17 9 : 9 15 Cuba 27

First, however, we have the only rest day.

Colin McGourty contributed to this report.

How to watch?

You can watch the event on You can watch the event on Chess.com/TV . You can also enjoy the show on Chess24, on Twitch , or YouTube . Games from the event can be viewed on our events page The live broadcast was hosted by GMs David Howell and Arturs Neiksans.

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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