Chess Olympiad 2026: Gukesh's form a concern as India eyes title defence – Preview

Two years since, the major core of that two gold medal winning teams join hands once again as India looks to defend their titles at the 2026 Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, starting Wednesday.

The tournament is the biggest-ever in chess history with a total of 400 teams – 208 in open and 192 in women’s section – set to be in action, surpassing the 380 teams in Budapest.

The Gukesh question

India has retained four of the five members from its title winning open team from two years ago. The only change in the team is the young GM Nihal Sarin replacing the veteran Pentala Harikrishna.

The usual suspects – Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, world champion Gukesh Dommaraju, and Vidit Gujrathi – round off the team with GM Srinath Narayanan continuing as the non-playing captain.

With the board order yet not announced, it remains to be seen how coach Srinath tackles his biggest challenge – Gukesh.

Two years ago, Gukesh was riding high. Fresh off his Candidates victory, the then teenager steamrolled his opponents, scoring nine out of ten games with an unreal tournament performance rating of 3056 on the top board.

But the 20-year-old has not looked anywhere near his best over the last couple of years since his world championship win. Once rated 2794, he has fallen to as low as 2703 in the most recent monthly rankings.

Gukesh is the fourth lowest rated player in the team, only ahead of Vidit Gujrathi (2697). Will slotting him on the top board with this world champion tag be the right move? Or does he need to play the lower boards to gain some confidence ahead of this world championship title defence two months down the road?

Erigaisi, who held the fort in the lower boards last edition, has since shown that he is more than capable of beating the best in the world.

With the presence of an in-form Praggnanandhaa, who has been on a super tournament winning spree this season, and a steadily rising Nihal – Srinath has his task cut out in figuring out the best possible board order.

With an average rating of 2733, India will start the open section as the second seeds behind a strong United States (2751) contingent composed of Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Hans Niemann, Levon Aronian, and Awonder Liang.

Even in the absence of the dangerous Hikaru Nakamura, the United States will be the most direct threat for India during their title defence.

Hosts Uzbekistan, led by Gukesh’s world championship challenger Javokhir Sindarov, will also pose a tough challenge.

Board-order asymmetry serves as India’s central tactical asset at the 2026 Chess Olympiad.

In elite Olympiad matches, games on Boards 1 and 2 often trend toward draws due to deep opening preparation and risk-averse strategies among 2750+ grandmasters in the Open section and 2500+ players in the Women's section.

Consequently, match decisions often occur on Boards 3 and 4.

In the Open division, placing Gukesh or Nihal on Board 4 creates a mismatch that no rival federation can match. It will enable Praggnanandhaa and Erigaisi to approach top-board with positional pragmatism, confident that their teammates hold decisive conversion chances on the lower boards.

Humpy returns

Having missed out on India’s victorious campaign in 2024, GM Koneru Humpy returns to the fold in Samarkand. She is expected to replace the missing Harika Dronavalli in a straight swap on the top board.

Divya Deshmukh, Vaishali Rameshbabu, and Vantika Agarwal, who formed the fulcrum of the team two years back, return as more polished players even as the young B Savita Shri replaces IM Tania Sachdev.

For non-playing captain Swayams Mishra, the strength of this team will surely lie on the second and third boards in the presence of women’s world Cup champion Deshmukh and women’s world championship challenger Vaishali.

If the duo is able to replicate their heroics from two years ago and Agarwal holds her own in the lower board, India might well return with their second consecutive Olympiad title.

With an average rating of 2476, Humpy and co are rightfully the top seeds in the tournament. Georgia (2449), China (2432), and Kazakhstan (2431), though, possess the quality to derail the reigning champions.

Format

The 2026 Chess Olympiad will follow a 11-round swiss format, meaning that there’ll be no knockouts in the tournament.

The swiss format is used where round robin isn’t possible owing to the large number of competitors.

In the opening round, the higher seeded teams will be paired against lower seeded opponents. From the next round onwards, the pairings are drawn on the basis of performances in the initial rounds.

Four matches will be played in each tie. Winning a tie will grant the teams two points, while a draw will hand them a point each. Losers go home empty handed.

The team with the highest points at the end of 11 rounds will be crowned the champions.

In case teams are level on points after 11 rounds, the number of match point wins will be taken into consideration to decide the champions, making every decisive result worth its weight in gold.

Indian Squads

Open: Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Gukesh Dommaraju, Nihal Sarin, Vidit Gujrathi, Srinath Narayanan (captain)

Women’s: Koneru Humpy, Divya Deshmukh, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Vantika Agarwal, Savita Shri, Swayams Mishra (captain)

Schedule

16 September - Round 1, 3:30 pm IST

17 September - Round 2, 3:30pm IST

18 September - Round 3, 3:30pm IST

19 September - Round 4, 3:30pm IST

20 September - Round 5, 3:30pm IST

21 September - Round 6, 3:30pm IST

22 September - Rest Day

23 September - Round 7, 3:30pm IST

24 September - Round 8, 3:30pm IST

25 September - Round 9, 3:30pm IST

26 September - Round 10, 3:30pm IST

27 September - Round 11, 11:30am IST

Where to Watch?

You can catch all the LIVE action from 2026 Chess Olympiad on FIDE’s official YouTube channel.