England finished 12th in the Open section with 16 match points. Five complete games, one from each player, trace their strong start, difficult middle rounds and three-match recovery.
England arrived in Samarkand seeded 11th and finished 12th, collecting 16 match points and 27½ board points. Seven match wins, two draws and two defeats made this a campaign with two distinct stretches. The official England team record confirms every round and individual contribution; the final Open standings fix their finishing position.
England opened with a 4–0 win against Monaco, followed by 3–1 against Tajikistan. Lithuania held them 2–2, but victories over Singapore and Georgia and a draw with France took them to 10 match points after six rounds. They then lost narrowly, 1½–2½, to India and Uzbekistan 2 in consecutive matches. Wins against Peru, Belarus and Italy restored their position over the last three rounds. The final table put them one place below their starting rank, although that single figure does not show how differently the first and second weeks unfolded.
Five games from England's campaign
These are editorial selections for what they show about the team campaign, not a computer ranking of England's five best games. Each squad member is represented once. The full legal move scores and White-perspective engine estimates are available in the replay boards below; the match records are linked separately.
Ashwath Kaushik–Fernandez, Round 4: points from the fourth board
Daniel Fernandez had Black against Ashwath Kaushik of Singapore. The opening was an English Defence, and the position developed through 16...c4 17.Qc2 Rad8 18.Bb2 Rd7 before the rooks and central pawns became active. Much later, 35...Bxf2+ 36.Qxf2 Qe6+ began a sequence of checks in which Fernandez collected queenside pawns: 38...Qxa3+ and 41...Qxb5+. The recorded game ended after 43...g5. Adams also won, while Vitiugov and McShane drew, giving England a 3–1 match win. The fourth-board point matters here because the team did not need a decisive result from either of its other two boards. Official Round 4 boards.
Adams–Bacrot, Round 6: the win that balanced France
Michael Adams had White against Etienne Bacrot. The game moved through 21.Bg3 d5 22.Qg4 c4 and into a long ending. Adams picked up a pawn with 48.Nxb6; later, 51.a5 Rd3 52.Rxd3 Kxd3 reduced the material further. The final recorded move was 55.Ne4+. With Gawain Jones losing to Marc'Andria Maurizzi, this was England's only victory on the day: the other two boards were drawn, and the match finished 2–2. One individual win made the difference between a drawn match and defeat. Official Round 6 boards.
McShane–Nihal Sarin, Round 7: a full point in a lost match
Luke McShane faced Nihal Sarin with White in England's meeting with India. His published rating was 2598 against Nihal's 2718. The middle game remained a contest after 37.Ne5 Bxf2 38.Rxf2 Nd4 39.Nf3; neither the result nor the final winning plan was settled by that exchange alone. McShane played on through a lengthy rook ending, advancing his f-pawn with 81.f7 and continuing after 83.Re8 Rxf7. The score ends after 88.Re2, completing an 88-move win.
McShane's was England's sole victory against India. Adams drew with Arjun Erigaisi, while Vitiugov and Fernandez lost to Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh respectively. India took the match 2½–1½. McShane's win is therefore both a notable individual result and a reminder that an excellent game does not necessarily secure a team result. Official Round 7 boards; study chapter.
Jones–Nikitenko, Round 10: the recovery gathers pace
England needed to build on their Round 9 win over Peru when Belarus came next. Gawain Jones had White against Mihail Nikitenko and manoeuvred through 33.Bc1 Nb8 34.Ne3 Nc6 35.Nd5. Later the recorded moves include 61.g3 gxf4 62.gxf4 h5; after 63.Kh1 h4 64.Rg2, Jones had his full point. McShane also beat Viachaslau Zarubitski, Adams drew with Artiom Stribuk and Vitiugov lost to Denis Lazavik. Those two wins from the lower boards gave England a 2½–1½ result despite the top-board defeat. Official Round 10 boards.
Lodici–Vitiugov, Round 11: finishing with a win
Nikita Vitiugov had Black against Lorenzo Lodici in the final match with Italy. The position simplified after 34.Nxf6 Nf3+ 35.gxf3 Kxf6, and the ending still demanded care: Lodici pushed his b-pawn while Vitiugov's h-pawn reached 40...h2. Play continued with 41.Rh1 Ke6 42.Bxd4 Rh3 and 43.Kf2 Rxf3+ 44.Kg2 Rf5+, the last move in the recorded score. Jones also won against Francesco Sonis, McShane drew with Edoardo Di Benedetto and Adams lost to Luca Moroni Jr. England closed with a 2½–1½ win, their third consecutive match victory after the Round 8 setback. Official Round 11 boards.
The contributions across the squad
McShane led the individual scoring with an unbeaten 7½/10. Vitiugov made 6/10, Jones 6/9, Adams 4½/8 and Fernandez 3½/7. These are points from differing numbers of games, not performance ratings. The match examples above show why the total was a team effort: Adams kept France level, McShane won England's only game against India, Jones helped rescue the Belarus match and Vitiugov finished the tournament with a decisive final-round point. See the official composition record for each player and round.
Assessment (editorial judgement): England's final rank is a fair record of the event, but the narrow India and Uzbekistan 2 defeats sit between two productive runs. Finishing with three victories after those losses, and with decisive points spread across all five squad members, tells the fuller story than 12th place on its own.
Match by match
| Round | Opponent | England–opponent |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Monaco | 4–0 |
| 2 | Tajikistan | 3–1 |
| 3 | Lithuania | 2–2 |
| 4 | Singapore | 3–1 |
| 5 | Georgia | 2½–1½ |
| 6 | France | 2–2 |
| 7 | India | 1½–2½ |
| 8 | Uzbekistan 2 | 1½–2½ |
| 9 | Peru | 3–1 |
| 10 | Belarus | 2½–1½ |
| 11 | Italy | 2½–1½ |
Round numbers open the final official board records; a 2–2 result is a drawn match. Full Open standings and England team composition.
Sources and game records
- Chess-Results: England Open composition, individual totals and eleven match scores, with the round-by-round board records linked above.
- Chess-Results: final Open standings.
- England's complete Lichess study and PGN export, legally replayed for the five native boards (retrieved archive SHA-256:
0a9f7c504b9bfd6571cfafdef557934a3905449cc9dc0d741fa0f54ba5965d36). Five full sets of Stockfish 16 / 50,000-nodes-per-position estimates were computed offline.
England Open team page · Round 7 report · Round 11 report · Final standings · Olympiad hub