Samarkand: India signed off from the 46th Chess Olympiad 2026 with two medals, as the men’s Open team won silver and the women’s team secured bronze after both sides drew their final-round matches here on Sunday.
The Indian Open team played out a 2-2 draw against Hungary to finish second in the standings. World champion D Gukesh suffered a defeat against Hungary’s Gleb Dudin, while Arjun Erigaisi defeated Peter Leko to help India secure a share of the points.
Host Uzbekistan claimed the gold medal in the Open section after beating Ukraine 2.5-1.5 in the final round. Mukhiddin Madaminov provided the decisive result for Uzbekistan by defeating Roman Dehtiarov.
Uzbekistan finished two points ahead of India and Germany to secure their second Chess Olympiad title. India took the silver medal on tiebreaks, while Germany settled for bronze after defeating the Netherlands 2.5-1.5. Matthias Bluebaum beat Jorden van Foreest in Germany’s win.
The Indian women’s team also finished on the podium after being held to a 2-2 draw by Georgia in their final-round encounter.
Savitha Shri produced an important result for India as she held Georgia’s Meri Arabidze to a draw after finding herself in a difficult position. The result was enough to ensure India finished third and took home the bronze medal.
China won the women’s gold after defeating Vietnam 3-1 in the final round. Kazakhstan claimed the silver medal after drawing 2-2 against Poland.
China ended the tournament two points clear at the top to win their seventh Women’s Chess Olympiad title.
India finished ahead of the United States, Poland, Armenia and Mongolia on tiebreaks to secure the women’s bronze.
The double podium finish capped a strong campaign for India at the prestigious team event, with both the Open and women’s squads finishing among the top three teams in the world.
(IANS)
