The 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad reached its halfway mark in Samarkand today, and Round 6 served up the match everyone had circled for weeks: hosts Uzbekistan against defending open champions India. Chess.com called it the most anticipated clash of the whole event — the first head-to-head between the tournament's two unbeaten teams.
How the table stood overnight
Through five rounds the open section sat in a neat three-way tie at the top. Uzbekistan, India and Germany each carried a perfect 10 match points from five wins. China, France, Iran, Armenia and England followed on nine, with Romania, Spain, the United States and Azerbaijan a rung further back on eight.
It pays to keep the scoring precise: a win is two match points, a draw one, and teams are ordered on match points with game points and Sonneborn–Berger only breaking exact ties. So after five clean rounds the leaders could still afford very little — and the chasers on eight remained within genuine striking distance of the podium.
Today's round
Round 6 is the deliberate line at the halfway point, because Tuesday 22 September is a rest day before chess resumes on the 23rd. The fixtures were heavy on confrontation: aside from the Uzbekistan–India showpiece, Germany met China, and several of the chasing pack faced each other a full match-point swing from their own fate.
Because the marquee games were still being decided at the Silk Road International Exhibition Centre as the evening set in, the exact match-point table after Round 6 was expected to firm up over the following hours rather than be final at the close of play. What looked certain was that the standings would be tighter after tonight than they were this morning — one clean win from the leaders and a draw elsewhere would rearrange the top entirely before the field disappears for its rest day.
The broader picture
A little context around the six rounds of chess already played. Around 208 teams are competing in the open section and 191 in the women's, record fields for the event, staged in Samarkand from 15 to 27 September. The opening ceremony took place at the Boqiy Shahar amphitheatre on the 15th, with FIDE interim president and five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand making the ceremonial first move when the games began the next day.
Two notable absences hang over the field. Russia is not competing, barred from FIDE team events since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and world number one Magnus Carlsen is not wearing Norway's colours this time. India arrived as defending open champions from Budapest 2024; Uzbekistan last took gold at home soil's predecessor in Chennai 2022 and now plays as hosts, with Nodirbek Abdusattorov on board one.
A related event ran alongside it — the third FIDE Chess Olympiad for People with Disabilities, a record 41-team field that Poland won with 13 match points on 17 September. The main Olympiad continues through Round 11 on 27 September, when the winner in Samarkand will close out a tournament already living up to its billing.
Related on Hermes News: the story of why the Silk Road city keeps drawing the chess world back.