Chess Olympiad 2026: The Poland question, India women don't have answers to

If Superman has kryptonite, the superwomen of Indian chess have Poland.

The reigning champions and top seeds India were beaten convincingly by Poland at the 2026 Chess Olympiad on Sunday. It was the third edition running that the Indian women’s team was blunted out by the Polish team.

The streak started at the 2022 Chess Olympiad in Chennai, continued at the 2024 Olympiad in Budapest, where India were crowned the champion, and has now extended once more in Samarkand.

After a near-perfect start to their title defence, India faltered in Round 5, going down 1.5-2.5.

Board 2, featuring women’s world championship challenger Vaishali Rameshbabu, was where India lost the battle in Samarkand.

With Koneru Humpy, Divya Deshmukh, and Vantika Agarwal, who replaced an in-form Savitha Shri on Board 4 to counter GM Monika Socko, playing out a draw apiece, the onus to salvage at least a point from the match fell firmly on the shoulders of Vaishali.

The 2026 Women’s Candidates winner, however failed to create any sort of pressure on IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya.

Playing with the black pieces, Vaishali was drawn into the classic London system by IM Matsevskaya.

The contest seemed to be heading for a draw for a majority of the time with Vaishali emerging unscathed out of the opening and playing solidly in the middle game.

It, however, lasted only until move 36, where the Indian misplayed her rook to e1 square. Matsevskaya found the perfect response, placing her knight on e3, and it was game over.

Vaishali did try to fight on, but the lower-rated Matsevskaya didn’t give an inch. She gobbled up all but one pawn and was on the verge of promoting to a queen before Vaishali resigned on the 57th move.

The points dropped against Poland lands a crushing blow to India’s title defence. They are now down at the eighth spot with 8 points in five rounds.

With six more rounds to go, the Swayams Mishra led side might have just dug themselves into a hole they might struggle to get out of.

For now, the difference between Polish chess team and the kryptonite is hard to find.