2026 Chess Olympiad

[Roger de Coverly]

Are we sure that they were *deliberately* bad?

Opening with 1. g4 is all very well, but following it up with f3 is inviting a very quick loss. You might hope someone on her team would have a word.

[Mick Norris]

Gukesh on board three for India. Just sayin'.

He'd be on board 4 if Pragg was playing in this match; hopefully Gukesh will come back into form soon

[LawrenceCooper]

An upset in the India match: https://lichess.org/broadcast/46th-fide ... n/9o0BQexh

[MJMcCready]

He was +6 up at one point also.

[JustinHorton]

I see Aronian ony drew - am I misremembering or didn't he have a real scare early on last time round?

[JustinHorton]

Also notable in the Open - l'Ami and Shoppen both drawing their games for the Netherlands against China Hong Kong, Gledura losing (and Banusz drawing) for Hungary ahainst Malta, Dehtiarov drawing for Ukraine against Zimbabwe, Shirov likewise for Spain against Libya, Ivic for Serbia against South Sudan, Papaioannou against Malawi. For Romania Bogdan-Daniel drew against Namibia but Lupulescu lost. Denmark's Olsen drew against Nepal. Austria's Blohberger lost against Palestine. Petrov of Bulgaria drew against Liechtenstein. Khumoyun (Uzbekistan 2) lost to Afghanistan. There are others but there's a football game I want to watch on TV.

(Though I do have time to say that Botswana drew 2-2 with Brazil, and Paraguay sneaked home 2.5 - 1.5 against Sierra Leone.)

[Kevin Thurlow]

And it is reported Erigaisi lost against Laohawirapap of Thailand - horrible blunder at the end. I was going to suggest that there will be dancing in the streets of Bangkok tonight, but then I guess there usually is..

[Matt Mackenzie]

Also notable in the Open - l'Ami and Shoppen both drawing their games for the Netherlands against China Hong Kong, Gledura losing (and Banusz drawing) for Hungary ahainst Malta, Dehtiarov drawing for Ukraine against Zimbabwe, Shirov likewise for Spain against Libya, Ivic for Serbia against South Sudan, Papaioannou against Malawi. For Romania Bogdan-Daniel drew against Namibia but Lupulescu lost. Denmark's Olsen drew against Nepal. Austria's Blohberger lost against Palestine. Petrov of Bulgaria drew against Liechtenstein. Khumoyun (Uzbekistan 2) lost to Afghanistan. There are others but there's a football game I want to watch on TV.

(Though I do have time to say that Botswana drew 2-2 with Brazil, and Paraguay sneaked home 2.5 - 1.5 against Sierra Leone.)

Looking at the final position, completely and almost trivially winning for him - one presumes a loss on time?

His opponent was rated 1813. Ouch.

[Thomas Rendle]

Odd, he seemed to have almost 20 minutes on the clock - so something strange has happened.

[JustinHorton]

So, the women's competition, where Wagner and Klek both failed to win on Germany's top two boards against Malta. Antova drew for Bulgaria against Suriname, Danielian for Bulgaria against China Hong Kong, Ardin for Türkiye against Lebanon. Malikova lost for Uzbekistan 2 against Togo but there seem to be only six moves played so was this a phone job? There's a couple more if you scroll, but I'm not seeing any other upsets in the sense of individual defeats or match scores, even close-run ones.

[Mick Norris]

Malta did well in the Open and Women sections

England v Tajikistan next; Scotland v Armenia

England women v Nigeria

[Matt Mackenzie]

Odd, he seemed to have almost 20 minutes on the clock - so something strange has happened.

Well chessgames.com now has it as a win for White (still not ChessBase tho)