Samarkand R4 (women): United States set the pace with 15/16 board points

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
9/20/2026 – The United States continued their strong start in the Women’s Chess Olympiad, reaching 15/16 individual points as ten teams are now tied for first on 8/8 match points. Alice Lee leads the Americans with a perfect 4/4, while her teammates Carissa Yip (pictured) and Tatev Abrahamyan have perfect 3/3 scores. Like Lee, five other players from the co-leading teams have also won all four of their games. Sunday’s fifth round features key clashes between the leaders. | Photo: Rafal Oleksiewicz / FIDE
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Ten teams move to 8/8 match points

After two rounds that produced notable surprises, the fourth round of the Women's Chess Olympiad was much more straightforward at the top. There were no major upsets on the first ten boards, as all ten matches ended decisively in favour of the higher-rated teams.

As a result, ten teams now share first place on a perfect 8/8 match points. The leading group is made up entirely of teams seeded between 1st and 14th, with Bulgaria, Uzbekistan and Serbia the lowest-ranked members of the pack.

The main absentees are Georgia, Ukraine and France. Ukraine and France both lost in round three, while second-seeded Georgia have taken a different route to the chasing group: they remain unbeaten, but have now drawn twice in four rounds. Georgia's latest setback came against 34th-seeded Austria, who held them to a 2–2 draw. That result leaves Georgia on 6/8 match points, 2 points behind the leaders.

There were four other drawn matches among the top 50 boards. Singapore, seeded 62nd, held Greece; 67th-seeded Costa Rica drew with Sweden; 73rd-seeded Bolivia shared the points with Canada; and 82nd-seeded Algeria drew with Finland.

Nadya Toncheva, Nurgyul Salimova

Bulgaria's Nadya Toncheva and Nurgyul Salimova | Photo: Rafal Oleksiewicz / FIDE

Song Yuxin

China scored a 3½-½ victory over Hungary - Song Yuxin defeated Szidonia Lazarne Vajda | Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

Govhar Beydullayeva, Lan Yao

Azerbaijan obtained a 2½-1½ victory over England thanks to Govhar Beydullayeva's (right) win over Lan Yao | Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

Women's Chess Olympiad 2026

Bolivia's squad before the start of round four | Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

United States continue strong start

Among the teams on 8/8, the United States have been particularly convincing on the individual boards. They have collected 15/16 points so far, dropping only two half-points in four rounds. Carissa Yip has scored 3/3 on board one, Alice Lee has won all four of her games on board two, while Tatev Abrahamyan has a perfect 3/3 on board four.

Lee is one of six players from the co-leading teams who have appeared in every round and won all four games. She is joined by Klaudia Kulon of Poland, Umida Omonova of Uzbekistan, Savitha Shri of India, Elnaz Kaliakhmet of Kazakhstan and Elif Mehmed of Serbia.

Tatev Abrahamyan

Tatev Abrahamyan | Photo: Rafal Oleksiewicz / FIDE

Omonova (Uzbekistan) 1-0 Borda (Argentina)

Anapaola Borda from Argentina had been showing resourceful defensive skills to keep the balance from a tough position against Umida Omonova. However, here she blundered the game away with 34...Rg4??

34...Kg8 was the straightforward way to deal with the potential discovered check and continue fighting. On the other hand, after the text move, there followed 35.Be3+ Kg7 36.Rxg4+ Bxg4 37.Rg5+ and White had no trouble converting the endgame with an extra bishop.

Umida Omonova

Uzbekistan's team captain Nafisa Munimova has a look at Umida Omonova's game | Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

Savitha (India) 1-0 Munguntuul (Mongolia)

There are a number of moves that win for White in this clearly advantageous position, but 19-year-old Indian rising star Savitha Shri found the strongest and best-looking: 40.Nf6+!

40...gxf6 loses quickly to 41.Qf7+ Kh8 42.Qxf6+ Kh7 43.Qf7+ Kh8 44.Qf8+ Kh7 45.Rf7+, etcetera. There followed instead 40...Kg6 41.Rf3 Re5 42.h4 Qc8 43.Rg3+, with a miserable position for Black.

Mongolia's Batkhuyag Munguntuul managed to prevent her opponent from giving checkmate, but in order to do it, she agreed to enter a completely losing endgame with rook against bishop. Resignation soon followed.

Savitha Shri

Savitha Shri sharing her happiness with India's team captain Mishra Swayams | Photo: Rafal Oleksiewicz / FIDE

The standings should begin to take clearer shape on Sunday, when the teams on perfect scores meet one another. The United States will face Uzbekistan, India will take on Poland, Kazakhstan will meet Germany, Bulgaria will play China, while Azerbaijan and Serbia will clash on one of the leading boards.

Standings after round 4

Rk. SNo FED Team Group Games + = - TB1 TB2 TB3 TB4
1 5 USA
United States of America A 4 4 0 0 8 66 15 18
2 4 CHN
China A 4 4 0 0 8 60 14 18
9 POL
Poland A 4 4 0 0 8 60 14 18
13 UZB
Uzbekistan A 4 4 0 0 8 60 14 18
5 11 BUL
Bulgaria A 4 4 0 0 8 59 14 17
6 10 GER
Germany A 4 4 0 0 8 57 12,5 18
7 1 IND
India A 4 4 0 0 8 53 14 16
8 7 AZE
Azerbaijan A 4 4 0 0 8 51,5 13 17
9 3 KAZ
Kazakhstan A 4 4 0 0 8 51 13,5 16
10 14 SRB
Serbia A 4 4 0 0 8 49,5 14 15
11 17 SUI
Switzerland A 4 3 1 0 7 41 13 14
12 12 NED
Netherlands A 4 3 1 0 7 40,5 12,5 15
13 20 ENG
England A 4 3 0 1 6 47,5 12 19
14 16 ARM
Armenia A 4 3 0 1 6 47 11,5 19
15 21 VIE
Vietnam A 4 3 0 1 6 46 12 19
16 28 ARG
Argentina A 4 3 0 1 6 45 11,5 18
17 22 ISR
Israel A 4 3 0 1 6 44 12 18
18 6 UKR
Ukraine A 4 3 0 1 6 43 11,5 16
19 2 GEO
Georgia A 4 2 2 0 6 42 12 16
20 34 AUT
Austria A 4 2 2 0 6 42 10,5 17
21 32 BLR
Belarus A 4 3 0 1 6 40 11,5 16
22 35 INA
Indonesia A 4 3 0 1 6 39 12 17
23 39 PER
Peru B 4 3 0 1 6 39 12 14
24 15 MGL
Mongolia A 4 3 0 1 6 39 11 18
25 45 AUS
Australia B 4 3 0 1 6 39 10,5 16
26 8 FRA
France A 4 3 0 1 6 38 11,5 16
27 30 IRI
Iran A 4 3 0 1 6 38 10,5 18
28 78 KGZ
Kyrgyzstan C 4 3 0 1 6 37 12,5 14
29 23 ROU
Romania A 4 3 0 1 6 36 12 16
30 26 TUR
Turkiye A 4 3 0 1 6 36 11,5 16

...189 teams

All games - Round 4

Replay all games on Live.ChessBase.com

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Topics: Chess Olympiad 2026
Carlos 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.
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See also

Samarkand R4 (open): Eight-way tie at the top as favourites hold firm

9/20/2026 – The leading group in the open section of the Chess Olympiad was reduced to eight teams after round four, with China, Uzbekistan, Germany and Armenia still unbeaten on every individual board. Lithuania supplied the main surprise of the day by beating Croatia 3–1. With all eight co-leaders now paired against one another, Sunday's fifth round is set to reshape the top of the standings. | Pictured: China's Wei Yi | Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

See also

ChessBase interviews from Samarkand: "How many databases? Hundreds!"

9/19/2026 – ChessBase has a team on-site at the Chess Olympiad in Samarkand. Visitors to the ChessBase stand can find out more about ChessBase for Mac. Arne Kähler and Veronika Exler are also conducting interviews. Svitlana Demchenko has hundreds of databases, Nikita Vitiugov considers himself to be one of the best chefs among chess players, while Gloria Yepez does not enjoy playing blitz! | Photo: ChessBase
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60m English The Elephant Gambit

The Elephant Gambit (1.e4.e5 2.Nf3 d5!?) has never really been given the attention it deserves. It is a very useful surprise weapon. Let us list the advantages of playing this particular opening: 1) Shock value 2) It is very aggressive. Black can take over the initiative early. 3) Many tricky lines 4) Unorthodox. Black is basically taking the game to the opponent as early as move two. Not many openings do that! It's a perfect opening for young players and club players to adopt. Let Andrew Martin select a repertoire for you on this 60 mins, which, if used with discretion, will rack up the points. I am sure that you will enjoy this unusual tour of the Elephant Gambit.