Uzbekistan and China stand between India and Gold | Round 9 Recap | Chess Olympiad 2026

Welcome everyone to the 9th round of the FIDE Chess Olympiad 2026. We are right now at the playing hall in Samarkand, and what an insane round we have had. Just the most exciting round ever, and I'm going to break it down all to you, and at the end of this video also show you a very small surprise in this new row 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 high focus 21% faster. So try NeuroGum, it's now available in India. Click on the link in the description. Let's begin. We will start off with the open section. India was taking on Germany. And I cannot tell you how close the match was. Pragnananda versus Vincent Keimer, very, very intense battle, ended in a draw. We had the game between Arjun Erigaisi playing on board number 2 against Matthias Bluebaum, also ended in a draw. Arjun played really well, but in the end it was drawn. Nihal Sarin today came back on the board Vidit was rested, and you know, in a very equal position, Nihal blundered. I want to show you one moment from this game which was absolutely shocking, or you could say interestingly shocking, because you know, it was this position. Black's queen was on f6 here, and black is completely better. The knight defends everything, threatening to come here. And the move— if Frederik Svane would have played Queen f2, Nihal was in trouble because c2 is hanging, queens are getting traded. Next move, Rook f4 is coming to attack e4. But instead, he went one step ahead, and he thought this was also a strong move. But Nihal Sarin found an incredible defense. Try to think, white to play, what would you do? The move is the very beautiful h4, and the point of it is very simple. If you come in now, Rook f2, trying to attack and so on, I simply go h5 and I'm threatening mate in 1. The rook controlling the back rank makes all the difference. And after h4, Nihal was able to hold a draw because Frederik had to trade queens. And what a save this was! Now it was 3 draws. Everything hinged upon Gukesh, and Gukesh was playing against Donchenko. Now, Gukesh's opening position was fine, and then in the middle game he got completely outplayed. And at some point, when the 40th move was reached, Donchenko had played so well that he had got an advantage of +5. Believe it or not. So we were like, the match is over, you know, India is going to lose today. But Gukesh played like— as Srinath, the coach of the team, said, he played like childhood Gukesh, where he would constantly get into losing positions and come back. And here is what happened. He made a comeback, he equalized the position, and then Donchenko was under pressure, and this is what happened. We reach this position, and the last move by Donchenko was bishop e2, and he's trying to trade pieces. He's a pawn up, and it's black to play. Find a very beautiful move here. It's the best move here, not so simple, but Gukesh found it with very little time on the clock, and the move is the very stunning knight to f4. What a move! Take a breath. If queen takes queen, I play knight takes e2 check and win the queen back. So that's not possible. The move— if rook takes f4, which was played in the game, queen takes c3, and now the rook is very active, the knight is taking the pawn. The queen is taking the pawn here if rook moves away. If rook takes f6, queen takes d4. Donchenko played bishop d1. In came a check, king h1, and a very subtle move, queen to d2, with a forced mate on h2, or the rook hangs. And here Donchenko resigned, and Gukesh managed to win in his trademark style. What a beautiful win this was by Gukesh. And this helped India not only win the match, but stay in this tournament for the gold medal. You know what has happened is just insane. Let me take you through a small ride of this playing venue because there are corpses lying all around. Look at this. Uzbekistan here managed to beat USA. Nodirbek Abdusattorov won. Javokhir Sindarov lost. But Yakuboyev struck and Madaminov drew, which means that the Uzbek team are now the sole leaders of the tournament with 16 match points. India is on 15. So you know who are we facing? Let me take you a little bit here. It— here, China drew 2-2 with France. All 4 draws. Almost going to lose actually Chinese team. So China is a little bit behind, but here is the shocking result of the day for me, which is Uzbekistan two beat Netherlands three and half half. That is just incredible. And you know what? Tomorrow India is facing the Uzbekistan two team, and we are facing Jakongir Wakido, Abdi Salimov. You know their players are twenty five hundred. and one of them is 2400. I mean, such a team you would face in round 3 or 4. You're facing them in round 10. So India has a great chance, but we can't underestimate this team. And one last team I want to show is Armenia here, because Armenia beat Azerbaijan thanks to the Mr. Olympiad here on board number 4. Gabriel Sargsyan beat Rauf Mamedov And Armenia has set up the board one clash with Uzbekistan tomorrow. So now think about this scenario: if Armenia were to beat Uzbekistan, then they move to seventeen. And if India beats Uzbekistan too, we also move to seventeen. And last round, it's India-Armenia. And if we win, we win the gold medal. It's possible, but to for Armenia to beat Uzbekistan one. Not going to be easy, but you never know. They are incredibly strong. Now let's head over to the women's section because here is where the Indian women's team played insanely well. On board number one, Hampi was up against the top Uzbek player, Khamdamova. She had a small advantage. She played well. I think she was better at some point. The game ended in a draw. Board number three. वंतिका अग्रवाल स्ट्रक अगेन। शी वाज़ ब्राउट बैक, वैशाली वाज़ रेस्टेड, एंड शी वॉन हर गेम। वेरी वेल प्लेड, गुड टेक्निक। ओके, एट सम पॉइंट द गेम वाज़ गेटिंग इक्वलाइज्ड, बट शी वॉन इट, एंड शी नाउ ऑन फाइव एंड हाफ आउट ऑफ़ सिक्स। सो हैट्स ऑफ़ तू वंतिका। सविता श्री 2-1 up in the match. And here is one game which is very, very nice. It's Divya Deshmukh who managed to win on board number 2 against Tokhirjonova Gulrukbegim. And let's have a look at this position. Divya is black, and you will see that Divya is a pawn down, but Divya realizes that her position is really, really good. And so she plays this beautiful move, Bishop d5. It doesn't look like very special of a move, but it already sets up a big threat, e3, when the bishops are going to be opposite each other and pawn on f2 is attacked. Oh, they're switching off the lights. I have to be quick. So here, Tokhirjanova thought, Rook e3, I stopped the pawn push. Should be okay, right? But in came the move queen to b4, a beautiful move. I think very difficult to sometimes play such a move. But suddenly the knight is trapped. If you go knight a5, I have rook a8 with the bishop. You lose the knight. If you go knight d6, I still go rook a8 attacking the queen and win the knight. In the game. She played Queen a7 so that if you take here, for example, Bishop b7, there's a3 and the queen is overloaded, cannot defend both. But Divya was so smart, she found the move Rook d2. The knight is still trapped, and after Knight a5 came Rook a8, a3, and she went on to win a piece and the game. And with this, India managed to beat Uzbekistan In the women's section, 3-1. Now in the women's section comes a huge match tomorrow. Round number 10, the penultimate round. It's India versus China. China is leading the tournament with 2 match points. They're on 17, India is on 15. The only way India can fight for the gold is if they beat China heads-on tomorrow, and this is our chance. If we are able to take it, we will have the chance to win the gold. Let's hope that happens. Big game tomorrow, and here comes an important announcement. And for that, I'm going to flip around the camera and give it to the one and only Amruta.

Let's do selfies, Agar.

Let's go, Amruta. Please tell the viewers what have we won.

Okay, this is something very, very beautiful. Thanks to you know these new awards which FIDE has introduced—the Excellence Awards—and it's dedicated to Daniel Naroditsky. And this is a Best Creator Award we were nominated for with a lot of amazing creators. You know, there was Gotham, Levy Chess, there was Hikaru, and everybody, like everybody amazing people. And this is what we won the award. It's complete surprise. I mean, today India wins in open section and women's section, and we also win this So that makes it truly special. Beautiful trophy. Never imagined. Like yeah, after a decade of Chess Biz India, I think this a big thanks to all the people, all the team and everyone who has been working day and night. Truly amazing. And a big thanks to FIDE also for really considering us. What do you think, Sagar? What is your feeling like?

My feeling is that I'm very happy, and I thank each and every person in this journey who has supported us and chess. Thank you all. Bye bye.