The Pragg and Gukesh partnership | Recap of Round 5 | Chess Olympiad 2026

Welcome everyone to the recap of the 5th round of the FIDE Chess Olympiad 2026 held here in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. After a long day of streaming, I'm a bit tired, but today was an insanely exciting day, and to break it down for you and bring you all the action, this is the Neuro Recap of the day. Ever blundered in a winning position just because your brain blanked out? In chess and in life, lack of attention and focus can cost you games and key moments. Instead of reaching for that 3rd cup of coffee or that energy drink can that can give you jitters or overstimulate you, try NeuroGum. It's viral in the US. It has a clinically proven blend of natural caffeine that gives you alertness and L-theanine that gives you calm and stable focus without the jitters or the crash. An MIT study shows that it gets you to a higher my focus 21% faster. So try NeuroGum, it's now available in India. Click on the link in the description. Let's first begin like we always do with the women's section. Now we are here today taking on Poland. You know, India faced off a very strong team against— of Poland, and believe it or not, the Polish team have been our nemesis In 2022 and 2024, even when we won the gold medal, their team had beaten us. And well, the tradition continued even in 2026 as India went down to Poland 1.5-2.5. Hampi on the top board here was very solid against Olivia Kyolbasa. She got no chances and the game ended in a draw. On board number three, Divya Deshmukh was actually in small trouble against the experienced Claudia Coulon. It was great play by Divya to actually be able to hold a draw here. On board four was I think a big chance for India because Vantika Agrawal got a great opening position against Monica Sochko, but somehow. वंतिका कुड़न प्रोग्रेस इनटू द पोजीशन, शी आल्सो ड्रू हर गेम. इट ऑल देन कैम डाउन टू बोर्ड नंबर टू, वेर वैशाली वाज प्लेइंग अगेंस्ट अलेक्जैंड्रा माल्ट्सेवस्काया. एंड वैशाली वाज द वन प्रेसिंग ऑलमोस्ट फॉर द बेटर हाफ ऑफ़ द गेम. बट एट सम पॉइंट, आई थिंक अंडर टाइम Vaishali decided to take a bit of risk in her game, and in time trouble, it all went out of control. In fact, even after looking at the game with an engine, I have not yet understood where exactly could Vaishali have improved. And that loss proved to be decisive as India went down 2.5-1.5 to Poland. This is our first defeat. In fact, This is our first loss in a game. Vaishali losing a game was the first game loss for India. And while this loss does feel a bit, you know, heavy, and India would have wanted to keep their winning streak going, it's not like the end of the road for the gold medal chances. You lose a match, there are 10 more left. So, you know, 6 more rounds to go. If the Indian team makes a strong comeback, It would be amazing. The question on everyone's mind is, was resting Savita the right decision? You know, she was four out of four. I think having the top four girls play here was the right call, but it also shows that Savita may get more chances in the upcoming rounds. The fact that she's playing so so well. In the distance, we see Kazakhstan taking on Germany. And winning their encounter on board number three. So the Kazakh women's team led by Bibisara Asaubayeva doing really well. On board number one, Uzbekistan and USA ended in a two-two draw. So that's a good result for the Uzbek team as the U.S. team is pretty strong. And then we now come to the open section. The most unbelievable result of today. Was the Uzbek team led by Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Javokir Sindarov, Yakuboev, and Vokido Shamshiddin beating Hungary 4-nil? How can you do that? Like that is just incredible performance by the team, and I think the Uzbek team are of course very strong, but just the fact playing in their home. Ground is motivating them to give their best performance. I think India and Uzbekistan are going to face off against each other very, very soon because on board number 2— that's table number 2— USA, the top seed of the open section, lost to Germany. And I think a huge result for Germany because on board 1 Vincent held Fabiano Caruana. Well, that's a very steady result because Vincent was white. He's a world-class GM. Board two, Matthias Bluebaum held Wesley So to a draw in a very difficult position. So that actually was a great result for Germany. And then Frederik Svane proved provided the big, big breakthrough, and I think that was a great result for. The team of Germany and Donchenko drew Levon Aronian. Now heading over to the Indian team, we were taking on the Netherlands led by Anish Giri, and on board number one was an absolutely insane game between Prag and Anish. Now Pragnananda and Anish have had a huge history of Back and forth games against each other, and one could imagine that wherever Anish is playing, it's very difficult to beat him. He's very solid, and in this tournament, he was on four out of four. So let's zone into this position. Prag is playing with the white pieces and has a relatively good position here. You know, a very steady move here. like bishop e3 should give white a small edge because it looks nice, the pawn looks a bit weak. But Pragg played bishop f4, and that was a mistake because now Anish was like as quick as possible. He took on h3. What a move! Because if you take back, then bishop takes d4. Queen takes d4 and knight f3 check, and you lose the queen. So clearly Pragg had seen something for this, and he took simply bishop e5. Okay, you have to take back with the pawn, and this is what Pragg had in mind. He went knight to c6, a very nice move. If you were to take the queen Then bishop takes d1 attacks the rook and the bishop, and this bishop is hanging, and Pragg would win the game. But Anish was so amazingly prepped, he went queen c7. It's not his prep, but so well calculated. Queen c7, he took, and now this very nice move, bishop g4. First hitting the queen, Queen d2, and now he took rook b8. And in fact, this position is clearly better for, uh, Pragnanand— for, for Anish. He's exchanged down, but he's better. Why? Because after something like knight f1, rook d8, queen c3 was played in the game. This is where a key moment happened in this entire match, and I want to Before we go deep dive into this position, I want to tell you what happened. So in the match, board number two, Arjun Erigaisi was under some pressure against Jordan Van Forest, but he drew. Board three, Nihal Sarin drew against Luke Van Welly. So these were two good results. I mean, Nihal's draw with Luke was a good result for the Netherlands. And here was kind of even, so it was 1-1. On this board, uh, Gukesh was trying to press against Erwin Lamy. We'll come to this game. So 1-1, Gukesh is trying to press, and suddenly on this board, Pragnananda is kind of, you know, trying to save himself. What to do, what not to do. And I think Anish should have checked what was happening in the game of Erwin because At this moment where we reach, Anish had a chance to fight for a huge advantage with the move queen e7, not trading the queens. The reason is that you can actually plant your bishop on d4, move this bishop away, bring your knight in, queen comes in, and somehow on the dark squares, black has so much control that this position is really better for black. Instead, Anish got tempted into going into a risk-free position. But after takes, takes, rook c8, Pragg found an incredible maneuver. He went bishop b3, rook takes c3, and put his bishop on d5. Once he did that, his position started to get better. He went rook c1, he went knight e3. It became easier to play, and in fact, Anish at some point offered a draw to Pragg. And Prague actually declined that draw offer and went on to win the game. That was a big result, and that gave India a 2-1 lead. But even before that, Gukesh on board number 4 showed his class against Erwin Lamy. We joined the position over here. It was a Sicilian Rosolimo. And you know, we reach this position where it's kind of balanced play. Uh, Gukesh has doubled pawns, but it's limiting a bit of white pieces. The b2 pawn could become weak. And maybe a move like bishop h6 would have been good, or queen f3. But Erwin was a bit careless here. He thought he could try and attack. He played f4, and now black to play and win. Gukesh found a beautiful move, pawn to c3, attacking the bishop. You take with either of them, there is bishop c4 hitting the rook. And that was very clear. c3, he took here, in came bishop c4. And Gukesh had worked out all the calculations because e takes d6, Bishop e2, d takes c7, and c takes d2, with the idea of taking the rook and making a queen, and that is winning. So he couldn't take here, and so he played queen e3, and now a very simple move, fe5, perfect timing. This is hanging, this is hanging, he took back. And after Bishop f1, Gukesh went on to win this game. Although it was not so clear like he would convert it, there were some bit of hiccups, but he did it quite well and he got the win done in style. Uh, with this, India beat Netherlands 3-1, and that was a dominating performance. It also shows that the team is kind of rising up to the occasion and supporting each other whenever needed. I want to also show you a few more results here. Chinese team drew their game 2-2 against Armenia, all 4 draws. Romania drew 2-2 against Azerbaijan, again all, you know, uh, board 1, Diatch beat Mamedyarov. Board 4, Mamedyarov beat Gavrilescu. So very close matches happening already in this tournament, and we do not know what will happen. Uh, 6th round will happen before the rest day, and maybe it will be India-Uzbekistan, maybe it will be India-Germany, maybe it will be some other teams playing. It'll be very interesting to see how the teams perform, but today I have a small neuro giveaway question for the day. I do that every single day, and I want to come back to this match, and I want to ask you, when Prag played— was playing on board 1, when Gukesh was playing on board 4, and the match was tied 1-1, and both of them in tandem, you know, sometimes Prag would go and watch Gukesh's games, sometimes Gukesh would come and watch Prag's game. What is the kind of two words that come to your mind that would describe this situation well? You know, you have to kind of describe it in two words. Anything it could be. Kind of tricky, but let's see. The ten best answers get the neuro giveaway pack. This will be delivered to you, and do let me know in the comment section. For now, this is Sagar Shah signing off. Bye-bye.