Blohberger's Rough Week Continues, and the Women's Section Has Its Day of Shocks
By Cameron W. · Fri, 18 Sep 2026
Round three in Samarkand kept most of the tournament's favorites on track, but it produced two genuinely major upsets in the Women's section and one very unlucky repeat customer in the Open.
Round three in Samarkand kept most of the tournament's favorites on track, but it produced two genuinely major upsets in the Women's section and one very unlucky repeat customer in the Open.Blohberger runs into Sindarov this timeAustria's GM Felix Blohberger, who lost the biggest individual upset of round one against a 2066-rated Palestinian player, had no better luck against far tougher opposition in round three. Playing Uzbekistan on board three, he lost to Javokhir Sindarov, who found an aggressive combination that forced immediate resignation. It capped a 3-1 Uzbekistan win that also saw board-one favorite Nodirbek Abdusattorov held to a draw by Kirill Alekseenko, before Muhiddin Madaminov sealed the match on board four.Argentina and Iran blow up the Women's seedingsThe day's real headline belonged to the Women's section. Sixth-seeded Ukraine, unbeaten through two rounds, crashed 3-1 to 38th-seeded Argentina, while eighth-seeded France suffered a nearly identical fate against 30th-seeded Iran. Two genuine podium contenders losing to teams seeded dozens of places below them on the same day is a rare result even by Olympiad standards, and it reshuffles the medal conversation heading into the tournament's second week. Ukraine's men, for contrast, had no such trouble, beating Slovakia 3-1 to stay perfect at 6 match points, a split day for the two Ukrainian squads.India keeps rolling on both boardsTeam India continued its strong start on both fronts. The men beat Italy's all-grandmaster lineup 3-1, with Nihal Sarin picking up his third straight individual win and World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju beating Sabino Brunello to move to 2.5 out of 3, a solid response one round after his live rating dipped below 2700 for the first time in four years. Humpy Koneru anchored a 3.5-0.5 win for India's women over Greece, outplaying the dangerous Stavroula Tsolakidou on board one.A tighter night for the Americans, twice overThe United States fielded two teams with two different outcomes. The men needed contributions from Wesley So and Hans Niemann to see off Denmark 2.5-1.5, after Awonder Liang suffered his second straight individual loss and Fabiano Caruana had to escape a difficult position against Jonas Buhl Bjerre just to salvage a draw. The women's team had a considerably smoother night, beating Cuba 3.5-0.5 behind a controlled, front-foot performance from Carissa Yip on board one.Elsewhere, the seeds mostly held, with a few exceptionsChina continued its strong start, beating Bulgaria 3.5-0.5 in the Open while its women's team saw off Türkiye 3-1 on the strength of wins from Zhu Jiner and Song Xiao. Ding Liren picked up his second win in three rounds, catching Bulgaria's Arkadij Naiditsch missing a key defensive resource before converting a long tactical sequence. Not every seed survived the round intact: 79th-seeded Kyrgyzstan beat 31st-seeded Brazil in the Open, and 50th-seeded Singapore did the same to 21st-seeded Norway, smaller shocks than the ones in the Women's section but notable results in their own right.What it adds up toThree rounds in, the story of this Olympiad is starting to take a real shape: India and Uzbekistan look like the teams to beat on current form, the Women's section has already proven far less predictable than its seeding suggested, and a handful of individual players, Blohberger chief among them, are having tournaments considerably rougher than their ratings would ever have forecast.