The Svane Brothers End Uzbekistan's Perfect Run
By Cameron W. · Thu, 24 Sep 2026
Round eight delivered the result the Open section had been building toward since Uzbekistan pulled clear of the field two rounds ago: a loss, its first of the tournament, and a home-soil defeat at that.
Round eight delivered the result the Open section had been building toward since Uzbekistan pulled clear of the field two rounds ago: a loss, its first of the tournament, and a home-soil defeat at that.Two brothers, two decisive resultsGermany beat Uzbekistan 2.5-1.5, with GM Frederik Svane and GM Rasmus Svane both winning on the bottom two boards against Nodirbek Yakubboev and Shamsiddin Vokhidov, enough to overcome Javokhir Sindarov's own win over Matthias Bluebaum on board two. It's the second straight round in which the Svane brothers have delivered the damage on the lower boards while their team's top two held steady, and this time it was enough to end Uzbekistan's run at exactly 7-0. Sindarov's individual form stayed intact regardless, he's now unbeaten through eight rounds at his own country's Olympiad, with four wins and three draws.The tournament is suddenly wide open againGermany and Uzbekistan now share the Open lead on 14 match points from 16 possible, but the real story is what's directly behind them: eight different teams sit just a single point back with three rounds still to play. A section that looked like it might be settling into a clear favorite a round ago is back to being a genuine free-for-all.China takes the Women's lead through a mating attackIn the Women's section, China moved into the sole lead after WGM Zhai Mo found a dramatic checkmating attack against Georgia's Lela Javakhishvili, part of a 2.5-1.5 team win. Kazakhstan nearly joined them there, IM Alua Nurman beat Vaishali Rameshbabu, but India's Savitha Shri rescued a 2-2 draw with a win over WIM Elnaz Kaliakhmet in a drawish endgame, moving to a perfect 7/7 individually in the process. It's a nice moment for Kaliakhmet's own story too, the Kazakh teenager we've followed since her first IM norm earlier this year continues to hold her own against top-level opposition even in defeat. The United States lost 2.5-1.5 to Armenia, leaving China's lead intact with just six teams now within two points.Upsets everywhere you lookedRound eight produced a genuine cluster of shocks across both sections. In the Open, Algeria's Adlane Arab beat Norway's Johan-Sebastian Christiansen despite a 200-point rating gap, while Mohammed Midhat Abdulrahman pulled off an even bigger one, beating a player rated 300 points above him. The Women's section had its own share: Aliaksandra Tarasenka beat Teodora Injac by more than 150 points of rating difference, Canada beat Spain as a 100-point underdog on the team scoreline, and Greece beat Ukraine, the same Ukrainian women's team that had already been on the wrong end of a major upset back in round three.Uzbekistan's other teams keep the home crowd happyEven with the men's perfect run over, Uzbekistan had plenty to cheer elsewhere. The women's team beat the Netherlands 3-1 to move up to sixth place, and Uzbekistan's third team beat Jamaica 3-1 as well, a solid day across the board for the host nation even without the headline result going their way.Three rounds left, and nothing settledWith Germany and Uzbekistan now tied at the top of a field that's eight teams deep behind them, and China's Women's lead sitting on a two-point cushion over a chase pack of six, the tournament's final stretch looks set to be genuinely competitive in both sections right through to the closing round.