Uzbekistan takes the Chess Olympiad at home, and China takes the women's title

Uzbekistan won the open section of the 46th Chess Olympiad on home boards in Samarkand, and China won the women's section. The event ran from 15 to 27 September. The closing ceremony was held on Sunday at the Eternal City amphitheatre on the Silk Road channel, with President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov, and the new FIDE president, Timur Turlov, in attendance. Viswanathan Anand, FIDE deputy president, was also there.

Uzbekistan went into the last round a match point clear of India and was paired with Ukraine. A 2.5-1.5 win was enough for sole first place and a second Olympiad title, after Chennai in 2022. The margin is the smallest that still wins a match. A 2-2 draw would have left the gold dependent on tiebreak. Uzbekistan did not need one. Winning at home, by the minimum, against a pairing the standings produced, is a different kind of title from a wire-to-wire procession.

India and Germany finished level on 18 match points. India drew 2-2 with Hungary. Germany beat the Netherlands 2.5-1.5. The tiebreak put India second and Germany third. The board result is simple: same match points as Germany, better tiebreak, silver. India had been the team with a chance to catch the leader if Ukraine took a result off the hosts. The 2-2 against Hungary ended that chance on the same evening the hosts closed their own match.

In the women's section China led on 18 match points before the last round, with Kazakhstan on 17. China beat Vietnam 3-1 and closed on 20. Kazakhstan could not catch that total. A 3-1 is a more comfortable close than Uzbekistan's 2.5-1.5, and it fits the pattern of a section China has treated as its own for long stretches of the Olympiad's history. The open gold is the one that changes the map. Uzbekistan has now won the open twice in four years, both times with a young team built around the core that took Chennai.

Samarkand was not a neutral hall. The host federation had the crowd, the pairings of a leader, and a president in the front row on closing night. Home advantage in chess is not a travel effect so much as a preparation effect: the team slept in its own city and did not face a decisive match until the round it could control. The Ukraine pairing was the gift of the standings. Winning it by a single point is the result that will sit in the table. The venue, the Eternal City amphitheatre on the Silk Road channel, was chosen for the ceremony rather than the games. The boards had already done the work.

Turlov's presence matters for the institution more than for the crosstable. He is the newly elected FIDE president, and Samarkand was the first Olympiad to close under his name. Anand's role as deputy keeps a playing legend in the formal line. Neither fact changed a single move on board. Both will shape where the next Olympiad sits and how the qualification paths are drawn. A president elected from a federation that has just won the open, standing next to the head of state of the host country, is a photograph the institution will use. The crosstable does not depend on it.

The numbers to keep are short. Open: Uzbekistan first, India silver, Germany bronze, both chasers on 18, split by tiebreak, after a 2.5-1.5 against Ukraine. Women: China on 20 after a 3-1 against Vietnam, with Kazakhstan the nearest pursuer on the final morning. The next argument is whether a two-time open champion from Tashkent changes the seeding assumptions that still treat India, the United States and China as the only open favourites. Samarkand has already answered that for 2026.