The Women's event at the 46th Chess Olympiad was held from 16 to 27 September 2026. It was contested by a record number of 189 teams, representing 187 nations. Uzbekistan, as host nation, fielded three teams. A total of 937 players participated in the Women's event.
China won the gold medal in the Women's event, which was their seventh title at the Chess Olympiads and the first since 2018. Kazakhstan took the silver medal and defending champions India completed the podium by winning the bronze medal. The player with the highest performance rating of 2638 was China's Zhu Jiner who scored 7 out of a possible 9 points (five wins and four draws) on board one. Individual gold medals were also won by Alice Lee with 8½ out of 10 and a performance rating of 2572, Lu Miaoyi of China with 9½ out of 11 and a performance rating of 2576, Elnaz Kaliakhmet of Kazakhstan with 7½ out of 9 and a performance rating of 2486, and Savitha Shri Baskar of India with 9 out of 10 and a performance rating of 2569.
Competition format and calendar The tournament was played in a Swiss system format. The time control for all games was 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, after which an additional 30 minutes were granted; an increment of 30 seconds per move was applied from the first move. Players were permitted to offer a draw at any time. A total of 11 rounds were to be played, and all teams had to be paired in every round.
In each round, four players from each team faced four players from another team; teams were permitted one reserve player who could be substituted between rounds. The four games were played simultaneously on four boards with alternating colours, scoring 1 game point for a win and ½ game point for a draw. The scores from each game were then summed together to determine which team would win the round. Winning a round was worth two match points, regardless of the game point margin, while drawing a round was worth one match point. Teams were ranked in a table based on match points. Tie-breakers for the table are i) the Sonneborn–Berger system; ii) total game points scored; iii) the sum of the match points of the opponents, excluding the lowest one.
The event took place from 15 to 27 September 2026. Tournament rounds began on 16 September and ended with the final round on 27 September. All rounds began at 15:00 local time (UTC+5:00), except for the final round which began at 11:00 local time (UTC+5:00). There was one rest day on 22 September, after the sixth round.
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Teams and players The Women's event was contested by a total of 948 players from 188 teams. It featured only three of the top ten players according to the FIDE rating list published in September 2026. The top-seeded team were the defending champions of India with an average pre-tournament rating of 2466. Koneru Humpy strengthened the team with her return on the first board, and the squad includes Vaishali Rameshbabu, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal and Savitha Shri Baskar. Of the gold-winning team at the previous Olympiad, Harika Dronavalli and Tania Sachdev were absent and replaced by Humpy and Savitha. Georgia followed with the second highest average rating of 2451, their balanced team consists of Nana Dzagnidze, Nino Batsiashvili, Bella Khotenashvili, Lela Javakhishvili and Meri Arabidze. Kazakhstan were the third seeds with Bibisara Assaubayeva on the top board followed by Alua Nurman, Meruert Kamalidenova, Elnaz Kaliakhmet and Zarina Nurgaliyeva on the remaining boards.
The Chinese team was weaker for the reigning five-time World Champion Ju Wenjun, former World Champion Tan Zhongyi, former Challenger Lei Tingjie, and the inactive World no.1 Hou Yifan but the team still had a strong line-up with the fourth highest average pre-tournament rating, consisting of Zhu Jiner, Song Yuxin, Lu Miaoyi, Yan Tianqi and Zhai Mo. Anna and Mariya Muzychuk did not play for Ukraine, and the team was led by 16-year-old reigning European Champion WFM Anastasiia Hnatyshyn on board one, former World Champion Anna Ushenina on board two, as well as Nataliya Buksa, Anastasiya Rakhmangulova and Tetyana Skarbarchuk on the remaining boards. The fifth-seeded team of the United States retained Carissa Yip, Alice Lee and Irina Krush from the squad that won bronze at the previous Olympiad, Tatev Abrahamyan returned and Rose Atwell made her debut at the Chess Olympiads. Other strong teams that completed the top-ten seeds included Azerbaijan, France, Poland and Germany.
Rounds
Round 1
The favourites did not have serious problems in the opening round, and most of the matches ended with either a 4–0 or a 3½–½ victory. Nine of the ten top-seeded teams recorded clean sweeps, including defending champions India, Georgia, Kazakhstan, China and United States against Dominican Republic, Tunisia, Botswana, Zambia and Andorra, respectively. Tenth seeds Germany conceded a full point to Malta after Dinara Wagner was under pressure against Oana Pulpan on the top board and Hanna Marie Klek could have lost her game against Milena Stagno. Both games were eventually drawn.
Despite the dominant team performances by the favourites, not everything went smooth on the individual boards, and there were many tight games that turned well for the higher-rated players. Armenian Elina Danielian survived a worse position against Tian Yi Liu of Hong Kong, while Uzbek Umida Omonova turned around a lost position and defeated Zara La Fleur of Trinidad and Tobago. Three-time individual gold medalist at the Chess Olympiads Pia Cramling led Sweden to a perfect victory over Haiti, while 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan inspired England's 4–0 sweep of Barbados with a convincing win with the Black pieces against Hannah Wilson (see diagram).
Round 2
The favourites scored victories in most matches of the second round, which saw some of strongest players playing their first games. Afruza Khamdamova of Uzbekistan and Carissa Yip of the United States debuted on board one and led their teams to 4–0 sweeps of Ecuador and Belgium, respectively. Ukraine and Azerbaijan also whitewashed Lithuania and Denmark, respectively, while defending champions India and China conceded half a point to Finland and Colombia, respectively, after Vaishali Rameshbabu and Song Yuxin were held to a draw on board one in both matches. Bibissara Assaubayeva played a 59-move draw with the Black pieces against Milana Babić on the top board, but Kazakhstan comfortably defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina with a 3–1 scoreline.
The main upset in the second round was Georgia's tie against Montenegro in a match with four decisive games. Nana Dzagnidze and Meri Arabidze scored full points for Georgia on the top and the last boards, while Bella Khotenashvili lost to Alena Skvortsova and Lela Javakhishvili was beaten by Aleksandra Milović on the second and third boards, respectively. Skvortsova sacrificed a pawn for the attack in a double-edged position and outplayed Khotenashvili. Javakihishvili had a winning position against Milović in a game that she only needed to draw to secure the match victory for her team. However, the Georgian was not able to find the winning queen move and made a blunder by capturing a pawn, which immediately resulted in a major simplification after which she ended up in a worse position with a material disadvantage (see diagram). Other surprising results were Czech Republic's tie against the United Arab Emirates wherein Joanna Worek lost to Alserkal Rouda Essa on board one after blundering a piece, and Slovakia's minimal 2½–1½ loss to Tajikistan due to Viktoria Nadzamova's loss with the Black pieces against Rukhshona Saidova on board three in a game she could have won with a queen sacrifice.
Round 3
A total of 20 teams scored their third match victories and remained perfect after three rounds. The top-seeded Indian team cruised to a 3½–½ victory over Greece. The only undecided game was played on board two, where Divya Deshmukh was held to a draw by Anastasia Avramidou. On the top board, Koneru Humpy built a strong position in her game with the White pieces against Stavroula Tsolakidou, which she managed to successfully convert, overcoming the loss in a winning position against the same opponent just a week earlier. The United States impressively beat Cuba with the same scoreline thanks to wins on the top three boards. Carissa Yip won a pawn in the opening and converted her material advantage with a confident play in the rest of the game. Bibisara Assaubayeva drew her second game in a row, but Kazakhstan defeated Slovenia 3½–½ with wins on the lower three boards. Zhu Jiner made her debut at the Olympiad with a win over Ekaterina Atalik on board one and Song Yuxin scored the second full point on board two in China's 3–1 victory against Turkey, whereas Lu Miaoyi found a repetition to survive a lost position against Gulenay Aydin and Yan Tianqi managed to save her game with Ceren Tirpan. The hosts Uzbekistan defeated Indonesia with a 3–1 scoreline with wins on the lower boards. Amongst the favourites, Poland scored the most crushing victory in this round by sweeping Latvia 4–0.
The biggest surprise of the round was Argentina's strong performance in their dominant 3½–½ victory over Ukraine. Ernestina Adam beat Tetyana Skarbarchuk in only 18 moves on the lowest board, and Anapaola Borda Rodas scored the second full point for the Argentine team with the White pieces on the third board, leaving the Ukrainian team in a must-win position on the top two boards. However, Nataliya Buksa seemed to be overpressing and eventually lost her game on the second board, and former Women's World Champion Anna Ushenina spoiled a winning position and settled for a consolation draw with Candela Francisco on the top board. Another surprising result was Iran's 3–1 victory over France thanks to wins on the highest two boards, but the French team could have easily lost without points as the Iranians also had winning positions on the lower boards. On board two, Marie Sebag lost control over her game against Melika Mohammadi by launching a deficient attack in the time trouble and committed the final mistake on move 40 with only six seconds on the clock (see diagram). Other lower-ranked teams that upset stronger opponents were Austria and Estonia that tied their matches with the Netherlands and Switzerland, respectively. Austria's key win came on board three, where Chiara Polterauer defeated Machteld van Foreest, while Margareth Olde scored Estonia's full point against Mariia Manko on board two.
Round 4