Category Archives: News

Samarkand R2 (women): Georgia only manage a draw against Montenegro

Georgia became the first leading team to drop match points in the Women’s Chess Olympiad, as the second seeds were held to a 2–2 draw by Montenegro in round two. Alena Skvortsova and Aleksandra Milovic (pictured) scored the Montenegrins’ two wins. The Czech Republic were also held by the United Arab Emirates, while Tajikistan and […]

Samarkand R1 (women): Nine teams from the top ten score 4-0 victories

India began their women’s Chess Olympiad title defence in Samarkand as the top seeds, ahead of Georgia, Kazakhstan, China and the United States. The leading teams made a comfortable start, with nine of the top ten seeds winning 4–0 and no major upsets on individual boards. England’s 11-year-old top board Bodhana Sivanandan also opened with […]

Samarkand R1 (open): Favourites win comfortably, Thailand’s Laohawirapap upsets Erigaisi

The 46th Chess Olympiad began in Samarkand with 206 teams in the open section, where the United States, India, Uzbekistan and China are the leading seeds. The top 30 teams all won their opening matches, though a few strong grandmasters dropped points. Botswana produced the only team upset by holding Brazil to a draw, while […]

That time Uzbekistan surprisingly won silver at the 1992 Chess Olympiad

The 1992 Chess Olympiad in Manila was the first held after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Suddenly, instead of one dominant USSR team, there were several very strong teams representing former Soviet republics. Russia continued the Soviet Union’s run of success. The surprise team from Uzbekistan, with just one grandmaster, took silver ahead of […]

Chess Olympiad – Live!

The 46th edition of the Chess Olympiad is taking place on 16-27 September at the Silk Road EXPO in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. A record 208 teams in the open and 191 in the women’s category are fighting for collective and individual medals. | Follow the games live with expert commentary starting at 12.00 CEST (6.00 ET, […]

A night unlike any other

FIDE Press Officer Michael Rahal writes: “By now, I have attended my fair share of opening and closing ceremonies: Grand Prix events, several World Cups and Olympiads, and even the opening and closing ceremonies of the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games. But none of them comes remotely close to what the chess community witnessed this evening […]