9/17/2026 – 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 Arjun Erigaisi suffered the biggest individual upset of the day, losing to Thailand's IM Prin Laohawirapap (pictured). | Photo: Rafal Oleksiewicz / FIDE
new: ChessBase Magazine 225
Chess Festival Prague 2025 with analyses by Aravindh, Giri, Gurel, Navara and others. ‘Special’: 27 highly entertaining miniatures. Opening videos by Werle, King and Ris. 10 opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more. ChessBase Magazine offers first-class training material for club players and professionals! World-class players analyse their brilliant games and explain the ideas behind the moves. Opening specialists present the latest trends in opening theory and exciting ideas for your repertoire. Master trainers in tactics, strategy and endgames show you the tricks and techniques you need to be a successful tournament player! Available as a direct download (incl. booklet as pdf file) or booklet with download key by post. Included in delivery: ChessBase Magazine #225 as “ChessBase Book” for iPad, tablet, Mac etc.!
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before. FRITZ is more than just a chess engine – it’s a training revolution! Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
If you're looking for a dynamic alternative to the Slav, Queen's Gambit Declined, or other mainstream systems, the Chigorin Defence offers exactly what modern tournament players need.
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A colossal field descends on Samarkand
The 46th edition of the Chess Olympiad kicked off in Samarkand with 206 teams in the open section and 190 teams in the women's section. Both tournaments are 11-round Swiss team events, with teams competing on four boards in each round and each squad also including a reserve player.
Six rounds will be played on consecutive days until next Monday. Tuesday will be a rest day, before five more rounds are played from Wednesday through Sunday, 27 September.
In the open section, the top four teams have average ratings above 2700: the United States, India, Uzbekistan and China. The teams seeded 5th through 16th all have averages above 2600.
In this video course experts examine the games of Bent Larsen. Let them show you which openings Larsen chose, where his strength in middlegames were, how he outplayed his opponents in the endgame & you’ll get a glimpse of his tactical abilities! Bent Larsen (1935–2010) was the greatest chess player in Danish history, and for a time, the second-strongest player in the Western world behind Bobby Fischer. Between 1954 and 1971, he won the Danish Championship six times, and achieved numerous international tournament victories throughout his career.
Free video sample: Introduction to Bent Larsen by Peter Heine Nielsen
Free video sample: Introduction to the Opening Section
The same four teams also entered the previous Olympiad as the four favourites, although China were seeded third and Uzbekistan fourth in 2024. They went on to occupy the top four places in the final standings. India won gold with an impressive 21/22 match points, the United States took silver, Uzbekistan bronze and China finished fourth.
The highest-rated players in Samarkand are Fabiano Caruana (United States), Javokhir Sindarov (Uzbekistan), Wesley So (United States), Vincent Keymer (Germany) and Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan). World numbers one and two, Magnus Carlsen (Norway) and Hikaru Nakamura (United States), are absent.
Wesley So in good spirits after meeting representatives from the Philippines, his home country | Photo: Rafal Oleksiewicz / FIDE
Ding Liren is playing on board one for China | Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE
Reigning world champion Gukesh Dommaraju is playing on the fourth board for defending champions India - he played on board three in round one, since Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu was not in the lineup on Wednesday | Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE
Let us learn together how to find the best spot for the queen in the early middlegame, how to navigate this piece around the board, how to time the queen attack, how to decide whether to exchange it or not, and much more!
The delegation from Burundi | Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE
The delegation from Fiji | Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE
Top 30 teams all win
The top 30 seeds all scored match victories in the opening round. Notably, 17 of them won 4–0, 8 obtained 3½–½ victories and 4 prevailed by a 3–1 score.
Only Hungary, seeded 8th, were pushed to the smallest possible winning margin among the top 30 teams. They defeated 110th-seeded Malta by 2½–1½.
The only upset in terms of match results came on board 31, where Botswana, seeded 133rd, drew with 31st-seeded Brazil. Providence Oatlhotse (Botswana, 2230) defeated Alexandr Fier (Brazil, 2537), while Mogotsi Mothudi (Botswana, 1914) beat Roberto Molina (Brazil, 2390).
Remarkably, no other lower-rated team managed to defeat its higher-rated opponent in the first round.
On board 21, Israel recorded a 4–0 victory over Pakistan after the Pakistani team decided not to face their opponents and forfeited all four boards.
Oatlhotse 1-0 Fier
Things quickly went wrong for Fier out of a Queen's Gambit Declined. By move 19, Oatlhotse already had a clear advantage, and the IM from Botswana spent 25 minutes before playing the formidable 19.d6!
There followed 19...Qf7 20.Nb5, threatening both Nb5-c7+ or Nb5xd6+ if Black captures the pawn on d6. After 20...0-0 21.Nxc7 Rb8 22.0-0 Bf5 23.Nc5 Kh8 24.Qxf7 Nxf7 25.Rfd1 White had a clear advantage with the far-advanced passer on the d-file.
In this insightful video course, Grandmaster David Navara shares practical advice on when to calculate deeply in a position — and just as importantly, when not to. In this insightful video course, Grandmaster David Navara shares practical advice on when to calculate deeply in a position — and just as importantly, when not to.
Free sample video: Introduction
Free sample video: Invisible moves
Mogotsi Arnold Mothudi from Botswana scored a crucial win over Roberto Molina on board four | Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE
Individual upsets
A number of strong grandmasters were held to draws by much lower-rated opponents. The highest-rated among them was Levon Aronian (United States, 2725), who only managed a draw with black against Ali Ehsan Aryan (Iraq, 2163).
Four players rated above 2500 even lost their games. Most notably, Arjun Erigaisi (India, 2759) was defeated by Prin Laohawirapap (Thailand, 2363).
Benjamin Gledura (Hungary, 2610) lost to Matthew Portelli (Malta, 2187), Felix Blohberger (Austria, 2552) was defeated by Ahmad Abdel Wahab (Palestine, 2066), and Khumoyun Begmuratov (Uzbekistan 2, 2514) lost to Homayoun Mohtaat (Afghanistan, 1928).
Uzbekistan, as the host nation, is fielding three teams in each section.
Ali Ehsan Aryan from Iraq facing Levon Aronian from the United States | Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE
Erigaisi 0-1 Laohawirapap
In the late middlegame, Erigaisi had a clear edge in a position with queens, rooks and a minor piece per side. The Indian star then gave up his advantage and entered an objectively equal ending with queens and rooks and an extra pawn. Finally, he blundered with 50.Qg7??
The only move that keeps the balance here is 50.Qf4, when 50...Qh1+?! (as was played in the game) is no good for Black, since the king will find refuge and White will get to make the most of his extra pawn. Still, after 50...Re4 51.Rf1 Qc3+ in this line, Black would get to keep things under control.
Instead, after 50.Qg7?? Black got to play the combination 50...Qh1+ 51.Kg4 Re4+ 52.Rf4 Qd1+ 53.Kg3 (53.Kg5 fails to 53...Rxe5+) Qg1+ 54.Kh3 Re3+ and Erigaisi resigned.
This video course includes GM Anish Giri's deep insights and IM Sagar Shah's pertinent questions to the super GM. In Vol.1 all the openings after 1.e4 are covered.
There is checkmate in two on the board. A memorable win for Laohawirapap and the chess enthusiasts in Thailand!
At this point, Arjun Erigaisi still had the upper hand against Prin Laohawirapap | Photo: Rafal Oleksiewicz / FIDE
Carlos Alberto ColodroCarlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.
9/27/2026 – 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, 15.30 IST) | Pictured: Alexandra Kosteniuk from Switzerland by Michal Walusza / FIDE
6/18/2026 – Dragon Chilling emerged as the sole leaders after day two of the World Team Rapid Championship in Hong Kong, reaching 14/16 match points after eight rounds. The all-Chinese team remain unbeaten, while Team MGD1 climbed to second place with a strong run that included a win over WR Chess. Barys also deafened WR Chess and moved into contention, as they stand in sole third place a point behind Team MGD1. WR Chess' Magnus Carlsen suffered two defeats on Thursday. | Photo: FIDE
This entry into the 60 minutes series concentrates on the Modern variation of the Italian game where White opens the centre early : 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nf6 4 d4 exd4 5 e5!. This line can be reached by various move orders, most frequently from the Scotch 3 d4 exd4 4 Bc4. It's a sharp variation and Grandmasters such as Evgeny Sveshnikov have used it frequently,with very good results. It's a perfect line for club players to adopt which is relatively easy to learn and which contains many traps. All the main responses are covered here, including 5...d5, 5...Ng4 and 5...Ne4 and the conclusion is that is is difficult for Black to equalize in a straightforward way. Problems are being posed, which over the board might prove tough to solve.
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Bb4!? is an opening idea well worth considering. Black immediately threatens to double the pawns on c3 in the style of the Trompowski or Sicilian Grand Prix attack.
Italian Game Powerbase 2026 is a database and contains 8571 top class games from Mega 2026 and the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 479 are annotated.
Videos: Nico Zwirs discusses the Sicilian with 2…e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 Nc6 5.Qe3 Nf6 6.Nc3. Mihail Marin examines Sindarov’s 6.Ne5 in the Queen’s Pawn Defence. Plus the ‘Lucky bag’ featuring 41 analyses by Berg, Ftacnik, Gupta and many others.
If you're looking for a dynamic alternative to the Slav, Queen's Gambit Declined, or other mainstream systems, the Chigorin Defence offers exactly what modern tournament players need.
Michael Kotyk presents a complete repertoire after 1.e4 e5, built around creative ideas, surprising move orders, and practical weapons designed to catch your opponents off guard.
€69.80
€59.90
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