Samarkand Chess Olympiad 2026 round 1: results, upsets and the round 2 pairings

Short answer

Round 1 of the 46th Chess Olympiad, on 16 September 2026, ended with wins for the top five seeds in both sections. This report collects the favourites' scores, the individual upsets ranked by rating gap, India's line-up with Praggnanandhaa resting and Gukesh on board three, and the featured round 2 matches, including Brazil's and Latin America's.

Event: 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad

How this was compiled: Checked on 17 September 2026, with round 2 in progress and no results yet. Round 1 scores, line-ups and ratings (16 September) come from the official PGN broadcast on Lichess; the upset comparison uses the 371 open-section games in that PGN with a result and both players' ratings, which does not cover every game of the round. Seedings and featured round 2 matches from Chess.com.

The essentials in a few lines

• In round 1 of the Samarkand Olympiad on 16 September 2026, the top five open seeds all won: USA 3.5-0.5 Iraq, India 3-1 Thailand, Uzbekistan 4-0 Jamaica, China 4-0 Uganda and Germany 4-0 Faroe Islands.
• In the women's section, according to Chess.com, nine of the top ten seeds won 4-0; Germany beat Malta 3-1.
• Arjun Erigaisi (2759) was the highest-rated player to lose in round 1 of the open, beaten by Prin Laohawirapap (2363), a 396-point gap; among the games broadcast on Lichess, six open-section wins came with a larger gap, the biggest 586 points.
• Iraqi CM Ali Ehsan Aryan (2163) drew with GM Levon Aronian (2725), a 562-point gap, in the match the USA won 3.5-0.5.
• In rounds 1 and 2 India fielded Gukesh on board three; on the team list he is fourth. Praggnanandhaa rested in round 1 and returned on board one in round 2, against Indonesia.

The open-section favourites

The opening round of an Olympiad pairs the top half of the starting list against the bottom half, and the scores reflect that. In the favourites' matches the rating gap averaged more than 400 points per board, and the question was not who would win but how many games each favourite would let slip.

Two of them let something slip. The USA, top seeds, played without Fabiano Caruana and saw Levon Aronian draw with CM Ali Ehsan Aryan on board three. According to Chess.com the game ended in a rook endgame with the Iraqi a pawn down, and he summed it up afterwards: "It was obvious that we will lose, but it was a contest between us about who's going to last longer!" India, second seeds, lost on board one, a game analysed in a separate report.

The women's-section favourites

The gap between the leading teams and the rest of the list is wider in the women's section than in the open, as this catalogue's preview already showed, and the first round confirmed it. India, Georgia, China, Kazakhstan and the USA, the top five, all won 4-0.

Brazil also won 4-0, against Mauritania, a result that contrasted with the open team's draw against Botswana. Both matches are covered board by board in the report on Brazil's first round.

The upsets, measured by rating gap

The two measures answer different questions, and both are fair. Fame measures the size of the name that fell: Erigaisi was the highest-rated player to lose in the round, and no other loser was rated above 2620. The rating gap measures how unlikely the result was, and on that scale there were six bigger wins, one of them against Brazil: Botswana's Mogotsi Arnold Mothudi beat Roberto Molina while rated 476 points lower.

The table lists open-section wins with a gap of at least 390 points among the games broadcast on Lichess with both players' ratings. Draws are not included, though some were bigger still: besides Aryan's draw with Aronian, Edmond Meng Zhang (Hong Kong, 1896) drew with Casper Schoppen (Netherlands, 2582), a 686-point gap.

India, Gukesh and the board order

The regulations provide for a fixed board order, and each round the captain submits the team composition, choosing who rests; each player's board follows the list among the four fielded. That is why the world champion appears as board four on the list and plays on board three: it only takes one of the top three to rest.

In round 1 India fielded Erigaisi, Nihal Sarin, Gukesh and Vidit Gujrathi; in round 2, against Indonesia, Praggnanandhaa, Nihal Sarin, Gukesh and Vidit. The idea that India keeps the world champion on a low board to bank wins is a reasonable hypothesis, but the first two rounds do not test it: in both, Gukesh faced opponents rated at least 290 points lower.

Round 2: the featured matches

Round 2 still pairs teams of very different strength, because nearly all the favourites sit in the group on 2 match points. Teams that drew or lost in round 1, like Brazil's open team, drop to lower score groups and meet lower-seeded opposition.

Among the Latin American teams in the open, the heaviest pairings are Chile vs China, South Korea vs Argentina, Colombia vs Hungary and Denmark vs Mexico, as well as Uzbekistan vs Peru on the top boards. This report records round 1 only; round 2 results are not part of it.

Frequently asked questions

Update log

• 2026-09-17 — First published with round 2 in progress: round 1 scores and upsets recounted from the official PGN.
• 2026-09-29 — The Olympiad ended on 27 September: Uzbekistan won the open and China the women's event. This coverage is no longer updated; the final result is in the standings story.

Sources

• 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad Samarkand 2026 | Open — round 1 (PGN with clock times) — Lichess
• 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad Samarkand 2026 | Women — round 1 (PGN with clock times) — Lichess
• 2026 Chess Olympiad Round 1: Thai IM Upsets Indian Number-2 As Favorites Prevail — Chess.com
• FIDE Chess Olympiad 2026 — Regulations for the Main Competition — FIDE

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