2026 Chess Olympiad Round 1: Thai IM Upsets Indian Number-2 As Favorites Prevail

The favorites won in round one of the 46th Chess Olympiad 2026, but there were a number of shocking individual upsets. Thai IM Prin Laohawirapap’s win against Indian super-GM Arjun Erigaisi is the Game of the Day, while Iraqi CM Ali Ehsan Aryan’s draw against American super-GM Levon Aronian was the only other upset against a 2700-rated grandmaster.

The favorites dominated even more clearly on day one of the 2026 FIDE Women’s Chess Olympiad, with 4-0 clean sweeps for nine of the top-10 teams—only Germany was made to sweat by Malta, seeded 104th, before taking a 3-1 win. 11-year-old FM Bodhana Sivanandan and 63-year-old GM Pia Cramling were among the notable players leading their teams, England and Sweden, to 4-0 wins.

Round two is on Thursday, September 17, starting at 6:15 a.m. ET / 12:15 CEST / 4:45 p.m IST.

Open: Favorites Prevail, But Not Without Individual Upsets

Full results

As GM Judit Polgar said on the broadcast, the early intrigue at the start of each Olympiad is who will show up as well as who will not. A notable absence is French number-one GM Alireza Firouzja, who declined to represent the nation. Since obtaining full citizenship in 2021, Firouzja has not played in the Olympiad in three editions: 2022, 2024, and 2026.

Other notable absentees are world numbers one and two, Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen and American GM Hikaru Nakamura. Compounding Carlsen’s absence for Norway are GMs Aryan Tari and Jon Ludvig Hammer, also missing. Nakamura, as well as GM Leinier Dominguez, were replaced by the younger GMs Hans Niemann and Awonder Liang. The U.S. is top seed by rating, followed by India, Uzbekistan, and China, in that order.

Also absent are Iranian GM Parham Maghsoodloo, Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna, and Vietnamese number-one GM Liem Le. For three editions since 2022, FIDE has officially suspended the Russian national team following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, while Belarus was able to return this year.

1,028 players participated in the open tournament in 205 teams. As teams flooded the Silk Road International Exhibition Center in Samarkand, some voiced complaints on social media about the lack of a hotel room. India’s coach GM Srinath Narayanan was the loudest of those voices.

Having a terrible experience at the @FIDE_chess 2026 Olympiad.

The team landed 5 hours ago at Samarkand airport. The team still haven’t been allotted rooms, with absolutely no clarity on when it’ll be allotted.

— Srinath Narayanan (@srinathchess) September 15, 2026

India is the defending champion, but the most striking part of their lineup is that World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju is on board four. In round one, he played on board three as GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu sat out, and all other boards moved up one.

Rank	Open	Rating
1	GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu	2761
2	GM Arjun Erigaisi	2759
3	GM Nihal Sarin	2718
4	GM Gukesh Dommaraju	2703
5	GM Vidit Gujrathi	2697

In contrast, former World Champion Ding Liren is playing on China’s board one even if GM Wei Yi is higher-rated than him.

FIDE published a response acknowledging the complaints. They wrote that, “Although accommodation matters fall within the remit of the local Organizing Committee,” and are not within FIDE’s authority, the international chess federation “has found additional financial resources and officially confirms that all teams which had to secure their own rooms will be reimbursed for the cost of accommodation of the appropriate standard, for a period of up to three days.”

There are 11 rounds played over two weeks, with four boards per team (and one reserve). A match win earns two points, a draw one, and a loss zero. In addition to valuable team prizes, there are also individual awards for best performances on respective boards. Let’s dive into the games.

Round one always begins with the biggest mismatch in the tournament, and favorites are expected to win across the board. The point of interest in the early rounds is the upset, and we saw a number of them in round one. For teams, rather than individuals, the biggest upset was Botswana (133th seed) drawing Brazil (31st seed) 2-2, with IM Providence Oatlhotse defeating GM Alexandr Fier on board one and Mogotsi Arnold Mothudi (rated 1914) beating IM Roberto Molina (2390) on board four.

While the favorite teams prevailed in the other matches, there were a number of exceptions. The standouts were the following:

We’ll start with the Thai headliner, who was born in 2006. In fairness, Arjun did have a winning position, and perhaps GM David Howell’s suggestion of 40.Rg3 in the commentary was a simpler way of getting the job done. Arjun kept the queens on, following GM Judit Polgar’s suggested line with 40.Qh7, but the game remained complicated.

Rather than taking the exchange on e4, Arjun opted for 47.Nf3?, a move that not only threw away the entire advantage but also gave Black easy play. It was Arjun who had to find only moves to survive, and he didn’t.

The game didn’t last another 10 moves, and GM Rafael Leitao goes over the action in the Game of the Day below.

Iraq’s Aryan may not have beaten Aronian, but he convincingly held the American in a pawn-down rook endgame. He told Chess.com’s FM Mike Klein that he was happy to have won the unofficial competition with his team members! 

“It was obvious that we will lose, but it was a contest between us about who’s going to last longer!” says 2163-rated Ali Ehsan Aryan after drawing Levon Aronian. pic.twitter.com/D6OhhZ3aQN

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 16, 2026

Homayoun’s 500+ point upset against Uzbekistan 2’s board four is amplified more so by their age difference: the untitled Afghan player is 54, against a 16-year-old grandmaster. Like Arjun, the latter was winning but allowed counterplay. In this case, 26…Qf5?? was a one-move blunder that lost the rook in the corner.

Note that, as the hosting nation, Uzbekistan fields three teams in the tournament: Uzbekistan*, 2, and 3.

Malta’s Portelli overpowered Hungary’s Gledura on board two after blowing open the black king, still in the center, with a central pawn thrust.

Austria’s GM Blohberger on board one suffered an upset against 42-year-old Wahab, rated 2066, when he got his knight trapped in enemy territory. 

Spain’s GM Alexei Shirov came within range of suffering an upset in the match against Libya, but managed to draw FM Yousef Alhassadi in the pawn-down endgame.

Shirov is one of the most experienced players, with this being his 14th time playing in an Olympiad. On the other end of the spectrum is the (newly-minted) youngest grandmaster in the world, Faustino Oro, who at the age of 12 is already Argentina’s board one. His team swept Kenya 4-0.

Among the players in action today is Faustino Oro, now officially a grandmaster and top board for Argentina at the age of 12! #ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/gdTsmWiJbR

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 16, 2026

One match was decided without a single move being played. Pakistan forfeited on all four boards against Israel. In both individual and team tournaments, players—especially from Iran—have refused to begin a game with Israelis.

The action continues on Thursday with Uzbekistan playing Peru, the U.S. against Mongolia, and Indonesia against India on the top-three boards.

Round 2 Pairings | Top 10

Women: Top Teams Dominate

The first round of the Women’s Olympiad featured almost total dominance for the higher-rated teams, with just eight of the 93 matches seeing the favorite drop even half a point. Malta came closest to pulling off a sensation, holding Germany to two draws, one of which could easily have been a win.

Full results (*Uzbekistan, as the host team, is fixed on board one)

Humpy Koneru on why she’s playing the #ChessOlympiad: “We have the best team, and also, more importantly, I really like coming back to Uzbekistan. I’ve been here for the World Rapid & Blitz Championship. It’s a very nice chess culture place!” pic.twitter.com/08MK89n5DF

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 16, 2026

Humpy and team got off to a smooth 4-0 start, though it was only on move 45 that the Dominican Republic’s WFM Mary Gonzalez finally cracked against IM Vantika Agrawal.

There were a number of such tight games that turned out well for the higher-rated player. For instance, Armenian legend GM Elina Danielian was busted with best play against 585-point lower-rated WCM Tian Yi Liu, but escaped with a draw.

Meanwhile 2297-rated WGM Umida Omonova helped hosts Uzbekistan to a perfect 4-0 win despite being lost against 1812-rated WCM Zara La Fleur of Trinidad & Tobago. 

The main theme, however, was dominance, with the second-seeded Georgia, third-seeded Kazakhstan (resting GM Bibisara Assaubayeva), and fourth-seeded China among the teams opening 4-0. China is remarkable for missing four top-10 stars, world number-one GM Hou Yifan, Women’s World Champion GM Ju Wenjun, world number-three GM Lei Tingjie, and number-six GM Tan Zhongyi, while they could also afford to rest world number-four GM Zhu Jiner and still impress against Zambia.

David Howell: “This is the most trapped knight I think we’ll ever see in our lifetimes!” pic.twitter.com/EsdXJQkt1m

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 16, 2026

Another team missing star names is Ukraine, without the Muzychuk sisters, but 16-year-old European Women’s Champion WFM Anastasiia Hnatyshyn got off to a winning start as the team overcame Iraq.

Another teenager making her debut was 17-year-old IM Rose Atwell, who helped the USA (resting IM Carissa Yip) to a 4-0 win over Andorra, though IM Tatev Abrahamyan needed 95 moves to overcome the resistance of Andorra’s Ariadna De La Riva Real. 

17-year-old Rose Atwell, speaking before she won her debut #ChessOlympiad game today: “I hope I win a medal. That’s one of my goals in coming here. But also I just want to enjoy myself and have fun, and so far I have been doing that for the most part!” pic.twitter.com/jtL08zKfd3

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 16, 2026

One young player already featuring in her second Olympiad, and now on board one, is 11-year-old FM Bodhana Sivanandan, who led England to a 4-0 win over Barbados with a convincing win over WFM Hannah Wilson. 

The watching GM David Howell noted that Sivanandan is now becoming a more tactical player, and also told a story of the unusual way he realized the young star was a genius at the closing ceremony of the previous Olympiad.

David Howell says it was at the closing ceremony of the last #ChessOlympiad that he realized Bodhana Sivanandan was genius level as she picked up the structure of the Norwegian sentences he was learning on Duolingo! pic.twitter.com/7hGFULRs0b

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 16, 2026

It’s not all youngsters, however, with 63-year-old GM Pia Cramling, the individual gold medalist in 1984, 1988, and 2022, leading Sweden to a 4-0 victory over Haiti. WCM Rose Seine essentially made a losing mistake on move four, but at least could claim to have equal material when the game ended 24 moves later, with mate inevitable.

Pia will be joined by her daughter WFM Anna Cramling, who sat out the first round.

The one top match that was genuinely competitive was Malta vs. Germany, despite the gulf in ratings between the players.

Germany scored convincing wins on the bottom boards, but IM Dinara Wagner was under pressure on top board vs. WFM Oana Pulpan, while WGM Hanna Marie Klek could have been blown away by WCM Milena Stagno.

That’s just a hint of what’s ahead, with real battles already beginning in what will be a much more competitive round two.  

On Thursday, we will see Finland vs. India, Georgia vs. Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina vs. Kazakhstan on the top boards.

Round 2 Pairings | Top 10

Board	Seed	Fed	Team	:	Team	Fed	Seed
1	59		Ecuador	:	Uzbekistan *)		13
2	47		Finland	:	India		1
3	2		Georgia	:	Montenegro		48
4	49		Bosnia and Herzegovina	:	Kazakhstan		3
5	4		China	:	Colombia		50
6	51		Belgium	:	United States of America		5
7	6		Ukraine	:	Lithuania		52
8	53		Denmark	:	Azerbaijan		7
9	8		France	:	Mexico		54
10	55		Turkmenistan	:	Poland		9

Colin McGourty contributed to this report.

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 Open, 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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