The Samarkand Olympiad closed with its eleventh round — and gave chess a story: Uzbekistan won the gold medals on home soil, repeating the success of Chennai 2022. India took silver, Germany bronze — the revelation team of the event. In the women’s tournament China became champions (beating Vietnam 3-1 in the final round), with silver for Kazakhstan and bronze for India. In total 206 open and 190 women’s teams played in Samarkand — a record for the event.
Armenia finished the event in the upper half of the open section table. Its path: wins over Barbados (4-0), Scotland (3½-½), Sweden (2½-1½), Argentina (2½-1½) and Iran (2½-1½), draws with China (2-2) and the USA (2-2) — and only in the penultimate round did the team lose to the future champions from Uzbekistan (½-3½). During the event the Armenian team lost only to the future champions — a level to build the next Olympiad on.
The third Paralympiad also concluded: team gold for Poland, silver for Cuba, bronze for hosts Uzbekistan — and in its section the individual gold went to Armenian FIDE Master Sargis Sargsyan with 6.5 points out of 7. Individual awards of the main event: in the women’s tournament, board-one Zhu Jiner and board-three Lu Miaoyi took individual golds for China, while Savitha Shri brought India an individual gold. The Samarkand Olympiad became the largest in history: the record for teams was broken, and the Paralympiad gathered 41 squads.
| Open section result | Medal |
|---|---|
| Uzbekistan | 🥇 gold |
| India | 🥈 silver |
| Germany | 🥉 bronze |
| Armenia | upper half of the table |
What's next. The Olympiad is over — but the season is only beginning: the Grand Tour and club leagues are ahead. We follow the Armenian grandmasters and report the essentials.
Sources
- FIDE, accessed 28.09.2026
- ChessBharat, accessed 28.09.2026
- Chess-Results, accessed 28.09.2026
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