Team Israel Forfeits Round 6
By Douglas C. · Mon, 21 Sep 2026
Israel's Open and Women's teams at the Chess Olympiad had their round six games forfeited after a scheduling dispute tied to the observance of Yom Kippur on September 20 and 21 could not be resolved with their opponents.
Israel's Open and Women's teams at the Chess Olympiad had their round six games forfeited after a scheduling dispute tied to the observance of Yom Kippur on September 20 and 21 could not be resolved with their opponents.How round five got sorted outFor round five, Israel's teams needed to finish their games earlier than the tournament's standard schedule would normally allow, presumably to be done before the holiday's evening start. Their opponents in that round, Singapore in the Open section and Colombia in the Women's, agreed to the earlier start, and both matches were relocated to the Savitsky Hotel to accommodate it. A straightforward accommodation, resolved without controversy.Why round six went differentlyFor round six, Israel's request was one of two options: either push the start time to 19:30 or later, or move the games entirely to September 22, the tournament's scheduled rest day. FIDE says it contacted the opponents of both Israeli teams this time, but unlike the round five pairings, neither side agreed to depart from the official 15:00 start time. FIDE was explicit that this was entirely within the opponents' rights, stating plainly that they are "fully entitled to decline such a request." With no accommodation reached, Israel's teams were unable to begin their games at the scheduled time. In the Open section, Israel's match against the Netherlands, GM Anish Giri, Jorden van Foreest, Loek van Wely, and Casper Schoppen against GM Maxim Rodshtein, Ido Gorshtein, Yahli Sokolovsky, and Ilia Smirin, was forfeited by a clean 4-0, with all four Israeli boards recorded as no-shows.What the loss actually costThis wasn't a minor sporting footnote. Through the tournament's early rounds, Israel's teams had been performing strongly, both the Open and Women's squads were among the group still on perfect scores after round three, meaning the forfeits represent a real, costly blow to a team that had been in genuine medal contention, not just a symbolic loss.Worth noting, without conflating the twoThis is the second time an Israel fixture has generated news at this Olympiad. Pakistan forfeited its own opening-round match against Israel entirely, citing government policy toward the country. That situation and this one are fundamentally different in kind, one was a political boycott, this was a religious scheduling accommodation that two opponents were within their rights to decline, but together they mean Israel's matches have now shaped two separate storylines in the tournament's opening weeks.