Individual Excellence at the Olympiad
By Cameron W. · Mon, 28 Sep 2026
Team gold gets the headlines, but the Olympiad hands out individual board medals too, and this year's crop tells its own story about who carried their teams through eleven rounds in Samarkand.
Team gold gets the headlines, but the Olympiad hands out individual board medals too, and this year's crop tells its own story about who carried their teams through eleven rounds in Samarkand.Open section: three golds nobody seriously challengedNodirbek Abdusattorov took board one gold for the champions with a performance rating of 2869, numbers that match what he'd already shown across this tournament as Uzbekistan's anchor on top board. Wei Yi took board two for China, and Frederik Svane, half of the German brother pairing that ended Uzbekistan's perfect record back in round 8, claimed board three gold with a 2796 performance of his own. Board four and reserve went to Ihor Samunenkov and Gleb Dudin respectively, with Dudin's medal built partly on the round 11 upset that saw him beat World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju in Hungary's draw with India, the result that helped decide the silver medal.That's not the same player who won Uzbekistan the actual title, though. Mukhiddin Madaminov, filling Uzbekistan's own reserve slot, delivered the decisive point against Ukraine in the final round while Abdusattorov, Sindarov and Yakubboev all drew their games, including a bishop ending Abdusattorov had been pressing with an extra pawn before the win slipped away late. Madaminov finished his own tournament 5.5 from 7, unbeaten, the kind of contribution that wins medals for a team even when it doesn't win one for the player himself.Women's section: youth and a comeback specialistZhu Jiner anchored China's title on board one, finishing unbeaten at 7 from 9. One board down, her 16-year-old teammate Lu Miaoyi didn't lose a single game across the whole event, closing at 9.5 from 11 for board three gold, arguably the standout individual stat line of the entire Olympiad regardless of section. Alice Lee took board two gold for the United States with a 2572 performance, and Elnaz Kaliakhmet claimed board four for Kazakhstan, capping a tournament that already saw her pick up her first IM norm along the way.The reserve gold went to Savitha Shri, whose Olympiad ended exactly how her medal suggests it should have: with a save. Her final-round escape from a lost position against Georgia's Meri Arabidze, salvaging a draw that helped confirm India's bronze, was the last image most people will keep of this Olympiad's women's section, and it's fitting that the individual hardware recognizes the tournament she had rather than just that one moment.The closing ceremony: fireworks, drones, and a flag heading to Abu DhabiSamarkand closed the 46th Olympiad the way it opened it, with spectacle. The ceremony was staged at the Amphitheatre of the Eternal City, and beyond the team and individual medals, FIDE handed out category prizes across five rating bands in both sections, recognizing federations that outperformed their seeding rather than the field outright, with the United States, Vietnam, Ecuador, Pakistan and Qatar among the Open section's category winners. India picked up the Gaprindashvili Cup, awarded for the strongest combined result across both the Open and Women's events, a fair reflection of a country that left Samarkand with two silvers and a bronze across its various teams.There was room for lighter awards too. Best uniform prizes, split across classic, sports and original categories, went to a spread of federations including South Africa, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Mali, the kind of recognition that has nothing to do with rating lists and everything to do with a team wanting to look good doing it.New FIDE president Timur Turlov made the ceremonial opening move on Abdusattorov's behalf during the closing proceedings, playing 1.e4 and thanking players for their performances across the event, a small ceremonial gesture from a president not yet a week into the job. The Olympiad flag itself was formally passed on to Abu Dhabi, which will host the 47th edition in 2028, before the night closed out with fireworks and a drone light show over the city that had spent nearly two weeks hosting the largest team event in chess.