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India Defends Chess Olympiad Double Crown in Samarkand

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India begins its title defence at the 46th Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, fielding Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh and Humpy across the Open and Women's squads.

India has begun its bid to retain both the Open and Women's crowns at the 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad, which is running in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, from September 15 to 27. The opening ceremony has taken place, and play started with the first round on September 16 at the Silk Road International Exhibition Centre.

The teams arrive as double champions. Two years ago in Budapest, India won gold in both the Open and Women's sections for the first time, and around 200 national teams are now chasing those titles across the two competitions.

R Praggnanandhaa heads the Open squad on Board 1 with a rating of 2761. He is joined by Arjun Erigaisi (2759), Nihal Sarin (2718), reigning world champion D Gukesh (2703) and Vidit Gujrathi (2697), with Srinath Narayanan serving as captain. India are seeded second in the section.

One selection has drawn most of the attention. Gukesh, who occupied the top board at India's last two Olympiads, has been slotted in at Board 4. Placing the world champion lower down leaves Praggnanandhaa to shoulder the toughest first-board matchups while giving the side strength in depth further along the order.

The women's team lines up as the top seeds. Koneru Humpy, Divya Deshmukh, R Vaishali, Vantika Agrawal and Savitha Shri make up the five-player squad, captained by Swayams Mishra.

Format and match points

The Olympiad is a team competition contested over 11 rounds under the Swiss system. Each side names five players, but only four take the board in any given round, leaving the fifth in reserve. That makes every match a set of four separate games.

Points are awarded by result rather than by individual games. A team collects two match points for a victory, one for a drawn match and none for a loss. Whichever team holds the most match points after all 11 rounds is crowned champion.

The schedule splits the event in two. Rounds one through six run from September 16 to 21, after which the players get a rest day on September 22. The remaining rounds, seven to 11, take place from September 23 to 27, and the closing ceremony follows on the final day.

Start times are fixed at 3pm local time for most rounds, which translates to 3.30pm IST. The closing round moves earlier, beginning at 11am local time, or 11.30am IST.

How the draw works

Because the tournament uses the Swiss system, opponents are not fixed in advance. The first-round pairings follow the pre-event team rankings, and after that each team's next opponent depends on how it has been performing.

Sides sitting on similar scores are matched against one another, so India's assignments will grow harder the longer it keeps winning. A further rule prevents any two teams from facing each other more than once during the event.

Rivals and home advantage

In the Open section, India's main threats are expected to come from hosts Uzbekistan, the United States and China. The Uzbek team, spearheaded by Javokhir Sindarov and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, will also benefit from playing on home soil.

The women's title is likely to be contested by a slightly different group. Georgia, Kazakhstan, China and the United States stand out among the challengers to India's top-seeded side.

For both Indian squads, the goal is clear. No country has managed to defend the Olympiad double before, and repeating the Budapest sweep on Uzbek soil would take India into new territory.

Chess Olympiad 2026, Samarkand chess, India chess team, Praggnanandhaa, D Gukesh, Koneru Humpy, FIDE Olympiad, Divya Deshmukh

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