Chess Olympiad seedings: Indian women top, men placed second

On August 6, 2026, seedings released for the Chess Olympiad in Samarkand placed India’s women as the top seed while the Indian men were seeded second behind the United States.

India enters the event as the reigning champion in both the open and women’s sections. The women’s squad comprises Koneru Humpy, Divya Deshmukh, R. Vaishali, Vantika Agrawal and B. Savitha Shri, while the open team lists D. Gukesh, R. Praggnananandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Nihal Sarin and Vidit Gujrathi; the open section is open to women competitors. The men’s selection shows one change, with P. Harikrishna replaced by Nihal, and the women’s side includes two changes with Humpy and Savitha coming in for D. Harika and Tania Sachdev.

The United States are the top seed in the open section and field a team featuring Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Levon Aronian, while third-seeded Uzbekistan includes Javokhir Sindarov, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Nodirbek Yakubboev. China, Germany and the Netherlands are also listed among the stronger contenders in the open. The USA’s average rating in the open is 2751 compared with India’s 2733.

In the women’s event India will face challengers including second-seed Georgia, Kazakhstan, China — which isn’t fielding some of its best players, though — as well as Ukraine and the United States. The top-seeded Indian women carry an average rating of 2476, with Georgia on 2449.

The 46th edition of the Olympiad has attracted a record 400 teams overall, split into 208 in the Open and 192 in the women’s section; by comparison there were 380 teams at Budapest two years ago. The tournament format will consist of 11 rounds with matches contested over four boards.

Individual board medals will be awarded at the Olympiad; at the previous edition Gukesh, Arjun, Divya and Vantika won individual gold medals for India.

The Chess Olympiad in Samarkand is scheduled to take place from September 15 to 28.