Uzbekistan won the Open gold on home soil, beating Ukraine 2½–1½ to finish on 20 match points. Mukhiddin Madaminov supplied the only decisive result. India drew 2–2 with Hungary and took silver on 18, ahead of Germany on tiebreak after the Germans beat the Netherlands 2½–1½.
China won the Women's title with a 3–1 victory over Vietnam, also finishing on 20 match points. Kazakhstan took silver after drawing 2–2 with Poland. India drew with Georgia and claimed bronze on tiebreak, ahead of four other teams on 17.
England won both final matches. Scotland Women and Ireland Women also finished with wins, while both Welsh teams lost. There were still individual results to recognise in those defeats, including rating upsets for Jonathan Blackburn, Emma Kong and Ireland's Tom O'Gorman.
England Open: two wins secure 12th
England beat Italy 2½–1½ to finish 12th on 16 match points. Nikita Vitiugov and Gawain Jones won with Black, Luke McShane drew, and Michael Adams lost to Luca Moroni. England climbed nine places from their Round 10 position.
Game of the Match: Lorenzo Lodici–Nikita Vitiugov. Vitiugov's passed h-pawn made the difference against Lorenzo Lodici. After 38...h3 and 40...h2, White's rook had to watch the promotion square while Black's rook became active. Vitiugov finished with 44...Rf5+, completing a useful recovery from his defeat yesterday.
England Open: full team review and games
England Women: a winning finish
England Women beat the Philippines 2½–1½ and finished 15th on 15 match points. Bodhana Sivanandan and Jovanka Houska won, Lan Yao drew, and Elmira Mirzoeva lost. That leaves England five places above their starting rank of 20th.
Game of the Match: Janelle Mae Frayna–Bodhana Sivanandan. Sivanandan turned a passed pawn into an extra piece against Janelle Mae Frayna: 47...d1=Q 48.Bxd1 Nxd1. Frayna later promoted to a knight herself, but Sivanandan's advancing kingside pawns kept the pressure on. The game ended after 64...Ng3, giving England a full point on the top board.
England Women's: full team review and games
Scotland Open: a difficult last round
Scotland lost 2½–1½ to Kyrgyzstan and finished 96th on 11 match points. Konstantinos Megalios won and Frederick Waldhausen Gordon drew, but Andrew Greet and Rishi Vijayakumar both lost. It was a disappointing finish for a team seeded 60th.
Game of the Match: Ruslan Sezdbekov–Rishi Vijayakumar. Vijayakumar's game against Ruslan Sezdbekov turned sharply after 26...g5 27.Qxd7. Sezdbekov came through the exchanges with the advantage and later pushed his c- and d-pawns together in the rook ending. Vijayakumar resigned after 43.Re5. After his win yesterday, this was a tough reversal against an opponent rated 171 points lower.
Scotland Open: full team review and games
Scotland Women: three points and a climb
Scotland Women beat the United Arab Emirates 3–1 to finish 55th on 13 match points. Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant and Kanishka Bhatia won the top two boards; Suzie Cooke and Eve Clark drew. Scotland moved up 17 places from yesterday and finished five above their starting rank.
Game of the Match: Wafia Darwish Al Maamari–Kanishka Bhatia. Bhatia's 31...Nf3+ against Wafia Darwish Al Maamari is worth replaying. After 32.Rxf3 Re4, Black's active pieces kept the initiative, and 33...Bxd4+ won back material. Bhatia finished with 42...Bg1, with White's exposed king facing a mating attack.
Scotland Women's: full team review and games
Wales Open: Blackburn supplies the bright spot
Wales lost 2½–1½ to Chile and finished 73rd on 12 match points. Jonathan Blackburn won, Jose Camacho Collados drew, and Ifan Rathbone-Jones and Iwan Cave lost. The final result hurts, but 73rd is still 27 places above Wales's starting rank of 100th.
Game of the Match: Jonathan Blackburn–Mauricio Emmanuel Marrujo Pardo. Blackburn beat Mauricio Emmanuel Marrujo Pardo across a 183 point rating gap. His 19.Nxh7 and 21.Bxh6 pulled the black king into the attack, followed by 26.Rxg7+ and 27.Qxg5. It still took work from there: Blackburn eventually won on move 60. A result worth recognising despite the team defeat.
Wales Open: full team review and games
Wales Women: Kong wins in defeat
Wales Women lost 3–1 to Egypt and finished 94th on 11 match points. Emma Kong scored Wales's only win; Imogen Camp, Susanna Fraser and Syringa Camp lost. The two convincing wins in Rounds 9 and 10 were followed by a harder final afternoon.
Game of the Match: Dema Alaa–Emma Kong. Kong beat Dema Alaa despite being rated 136 points lower. This was a turnaround: Alaa had a strong attack before 36.Rd2 and 37.Rd1 let the advantage slip. Kong found 38...Qg2+ and 39...Bf3, then exchanged queens and took the rook on d1. The Egyptian player's attack had left her own position vulnerable.
Wales Women's: full team review and games
Ireland Open: O'Gorman beats Preotu
Ireland lost 2½–1½ to Canada and finished 65th on 12 match points, one place above their starting rank. Tom O'Gorman won, Kavin Venkatesan drew, and Tarun Kanyamarala and Adam Collins lost. Canada's two wins outweighed Ireland's success on board two.
Game of the Match: Tom O'Gorman–Razvan Preotu. O'Gorman beat grandmaster Razvan Preotu, rated 95 points higher. After 31...Rxh2, O'Gorman brought his king forward with 32.Kd4 and followed with 33.Be5+ and 34.Kxe4, taking Black's bishop. He then worked through a long ending with two bishops against a rook, winning on move 70.
Ireland Open: full team review and games
Ireland Women: Putar helps secure the win
Ireland Women beat Albania 2½–1½ to finish 57th on 13 match points. Trisha Kanyamarala and Lara Putar won, Diana Mirza drew, and Alice O'Gorman lost. Ireland finished six places higher than yesterday and one below their starting rank of 56th.
Game of the Match: Eglantina Shabanaj–Lara Putar. Putar punished Eglantina Shabanaj's 10.Qe1 with 10...Nxd4. After 11.exd4 Bxb5, the bishop also took the rook on f1. Putar kept the attack moving and finished with 27...Rf2+, leaving White facing mate. It was a direct, decisive contribution to Ireland's final match win.
Ireland Women's: full team review and games
Home Nations: final standings against starting seed
Seed is the starting rank in each section. The movement column compares that starting position with the final official rank.
| Team | Round 11 result | Seed | Final | Movement | MP | GP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| England Open | Beat Italy 2½–1½ | 11 | 12 | down 1 | 16 | 27½ |
| England Women | Beat Philippines 2½–1½ | 20 | 15 | up 5 | 15 | 30½ |
| Scotland Open | Lost to Kyrgyzstan 1½–2½ | 60 | 96 | down 36 | 11 | 26½ |
| Scotland Women | Beat United Arab Emirates 3–1 | 60 | 55 | up 5 | 13 | 24 |
| Wales Open | Lost to Chile 1½–2½ | 100 | 73 | up 27 | 12 | 26½ |
| Wales Women | Lost to Egypt 1–3 | 85 | 94 | down 9 | 11 | 23½ |
| Ireland Open | Lost to Canada 1½–2½ | 66 | 65 | up 1 | 12 | 27 |
| Ireland Women | Beat Albania 2½–1½ | 56 | 57 | down 1 | 13 | 23½ |
Home Nations hub and all eight team pages
Wider Olympiad: the medals are settled
Three draws left Madaminov's win against Roman Dehtiarov as the difference between Uzbekistan and Ukraine. The hosts finished with ten match wins and one defeat. India could only draw with Hungary: Arjun Erigaisi beat Peter Leko, but Gukesh lost to Gleb Dudin. Germany's Matthias Bluebaum beat Jorden van Foreest in the only decisive game of their match against the Netherlands, securing bronze.
China's two wins came from Zhu Jiner and Lu Miaoyi, with the other boards drawn. Kazakhstan finished unbeaten too, but four drawn matches left them two match points short of China. India joined the United States, Poland, Armenia and Mongolia on 17, with the official tiebreak order giving India the final medal.
Open: final Top 10
| Rank | Team | MP | TB2 | GP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Uzbekistan | 20 | 455½ | 32½ |
| 2 | India | 18 | 405½ | 28½ |
| 3 | Germany | 18 | 386½ | 28½ |
| 4 | United States of America | 17 | 391½ | 29 |
| 5 | Azerbaijan | 17 | 364½ | 28½ |
| 6 | Armenia | 17 | 339½ | 27 |
| 7 | Hungary | 17 | 320½ | 24½ |
| 8 | China | 16 | 374½ | 28 |
| 9 | France | 16 | 366½ | 28½ |
| 10 | Spain | 16 | 354½ | 28½ |
Women’s: final Top 10
| Rank | Team | MP | TB2 | GP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | 20 | 463 | 33 |
| 2 | Kazakhstan | 18 | 395 | 29 |
| 3 | India | 17 | 424 | 31 |
| 4 | United States of America | 17 | 418 | 32½ |
| 5 | Poland | 17 | 381 | 28½ |
| 6 | Armenia | 17 | 369 | 28½ |
| 7 | Mongolia | 17 | 331 | 27 |
| 8 | Georgia | 16 | 360 | 28½ |
| 9 | Vietnam | 16 | 348 | 28½ |
| 10 | Slovenia | 16 | 336 | 29½ |
Upsets of the Olympiad: Round 11
An upset here means a completed decisive game in which a player with a published numeric rating beat a higher rated opponent. Draws, forfeits and games involving an unrated player are excluded.
The final round produced 77 qualifying upsets in the Open and 56 in the Women's section. Aashish Phunyal's win over Kirill Chukavin had the largest Open rating gap, at 354 points. Sinoia Naira's win over Patricia Evarista Castillo Pena led the Women's list at 346.
| # | Open winner | Rating gap | Women’s winner | Rating gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aashish Phunyal over Kirill Chukavin | 354 | Sinoia Naira over Patricia Evarista Castillo Pena | 346 |
| 2 | Lumen Paco Semeko over El Moctar Sidaty Mohamed | 287 | Sina Tadesse Negi over Shemilah James | 311 |
| 3 | Yasser Hadj Kholti over Raymond Song | 260 | Mohamed Ali Sabarin over Omaima Ahmed Awad | 266 |
| 4 | Sohail Zaman over Mohamed Abdalla Abdelazeez | 234 | Najla Ahmed over Jamie-Nicole Beukes | 253 |
| 5 | Abner Farquhar over Mohammed Fahad M Alsemail | 223 | Aida Paunescu over Adani Clarke | 252 |
| 6 | Nicholas Goldberg over Lanni Gadeanang | 223 | Alba Pllana over Kerstin Danielle Reinhard Moller | 249 |
| 7 | Bob Bibasa over Rafail Antoniou | 218 | Ahmed Nihaya over Leslie Carolin Torres Hernandez | 242 |
| 8 | Bader Alsayer over Nilson Cardenas Carbajal | 215 | Shafira Devi Herfesa over Sabrina Vega Gutierrez | 233 |
| 9 | Naser Parsa over Yoboue Hermann Manan | 215 | Chahd Bousselmi over Scarlett Daniela Olea Valle | 228 |
| 10 | Daniel Hanwen Gong over Ermes Espinosa Veloz | 212 | Dzidzor Esi Dotse over Naomi Mwale | 220 |
Every Open Round 11 game · All Open upsets · Every Women’s Round 11 game · All Women’s upsets
My take
Uzbekistan earned this. They lost to Germany in Round 8, then won all three remaining matches to finish two points clear. China went through the Women's event unbeaten and finished with a win too. Both teams settled the argument on the boards.
For the Home Nations, I would be careful about letting the final afternoon write the whole review. Wales Open lost today but finished 27 places above their starting rank of 100th. Blackburn's win deserves its own attention. England Women finished five places above their 20th seed, and Scotland Women did the same from 60th. Those are useful starting points for judging the campaigns, although seedings alone cannot tell us how well every player performed.
Scotland Open's 96th place, 36 below their 60th seed, needs a more critical look. There were good individual results along the way, including Vijayakumar's win yesterday. England Open's two wins to finish brought them back to 12th, just one below their 11th seed. Ireland Open placed 65th from a 66th seed; Ireland Women finished 57th from 56th. Wales Women ended 94th from 85th, nine places lower, even after those encouraging wins in Rounds 9 and 10.
Kong's game is the one I would bring back to my own board. Her opponent had a strong attack, then the game turned within a couple of moves. I know the feeling of getting carried away when a position looks promising. Usually from the wrong side of the result.
Sources
- Official Open Round 11 results and final standings
- Official Women’s Round 11 results and final standings
- Round 11 Lichess study chapters linked in each Game of the Match. Move references were checked against the official broadcast scores.