Uzbekistan wins open gold in Samarkand as 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan becomes youngest WGM
Uzbekistan won the open gold at the 2026 Chess Olympiad in Samarkand last week, leading virtually from start to finish, while England’s 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan set a new world age record by becoming the youngest ever woman grandmaster (WGM).
The hosts secured first place in the open event with 20/22 match points; India and Germany finished on 18, and the top-seeded United States placed fourth. Uzbekistan’s lineup was anchored by world No 5 Nodirbek Abdusattorov and world title challenger Javokhir Sindarov, and the team rebounded from a single defeat by Germany to deliver a 3.5-0.5 win over Armenia in the penultimate round. The Uzbek government rewarded each of the five players with $200,000 (£178,000) and gave coach Rustam Kasimdzhanov $50,000. A total of 206 teams competed.
India, the defending champions, finished in line with their seeding and used world champion Gukesh Dommaraju on board four, a move that boosted his results but left him exposed in the final rounds when he was outplayed against Germany (a game he won fortuitously) and Hungary. The final standings beyond the top four included Azerbaijan, Armenia and Hungary on 17 match points, and China, France, Spain, Ukraine and England on 16. England placed 12th in the open, one spot below their seeding; Michael Adams, 54, and Spectator columnist Luke McShane, 42, were both in contention for individual medals up to the final round.
Turkey’s 15-year-old Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus took the individual silver medal unbeaten and rose to No 17 in the live ratings, a level the report compares with Bobby Fischer at that age and places ahead of Magnus Carlsen at 15. The article illustrates Erdogmus’s form with a win over Argentina’s Faustino Oro.
China won the women’s Olympiad with its B team, finishing ahead of Kazakhstan, India and the United States. World champion Ju Wenjun, world No 1 Hou Yifan, former title challenger Tan Zhongyi and world No 3 Lei Tingjie did not travel, while substitutes led by world No 4 Zhu Jiner and 16-year-old Lu Miaoyi produced effective performances. The report notes the United States has promising young women players, naming Carissa Yip, 23, and Alice Lee, 16, who are targeting the open GM title and the $100,000 bonus offered by Dr Jeanne Cairns Sinquefield, alongside emerging candidates Rachael Li, Rose Atwell and Zoey Tang, all teenagers with 2300+ ratings.
Bodhana Sivanandan scored 8/11 at the Olympiad, playing every round without rest, with six wins, draws against Ukraine’s Anastasiia Hnatyshyn and Georgia’s Nana Dzagnidze, and a single loss to Deysi Cori of Peru attributable to a time-pressure blunder in a drawn ending. The Harrow schoolgirl’s result broke Hou’s 2006 youngest-WGM record by several months and gave her a second norm (of three) toward the international master (IM) title; her rating stands at 2382 including the Olympiad and she needs a 2400 to complete the IM title requirements. The piece describes her last-round game as resembling a “Magnus Carlsen grind.”
If Sivanandan secures her final IM norm and reaches 2400 before her 12th birthday, she would surpass Judit Polgar’s world age record and become one of the 10 youngest ever IMs; she is currently No 2 among players born in 2015, behind Russia’s IM Roman Shogdzhiev. The Guardian’s Matthew Weaver interviewed her after her return home; at the end of the Olympiad she spoke with Lichess.org’s Theo Wait, and chess.com provided detailed coverage. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s new £250,000-a-year Supporting Elite Chess Fund document contains no specific provision for rewarding world-record breakers, and the article notes Sivanandan’s IM title and new record could follow as soon as the London Classic, which begins in November.
Timur Turlov, 38, a Russian-born entrepreneur from Kazakhstan whose company Freedom Holding has a multibillion-dollar valuation on the Nasdaq index, was elected president of FIDE last Saturday after an initial ballot in which he received 96 votes against 76 for Wadim Rosenstein and 20 for the ticket of Jan Henric Buettner and Malcolm Pein. In the run-off ballot those backers switched to Turlov, who defeated Rosenstein 110-85. The previous FIDE president, Arkady Dvorkovich, had planned a third-term bid but withdrew because of EU sanctions on his assets and travel visas; Rosenstein has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport over Turlov’s eligibility.
