2026 Chess Olympiad Round 4: U.S. Wins 3.5-0.5 In Both Sections As Favorites Allow No Upsets

Full results

Uzbekistan wrapped up the match against Turkiye in the first three hours, one of the early finishers in round four. An opening mistake on board three was the cause, with GM Nodirbek Yakubboev beating GM Vahap Sanal. Black’s 9…Nxd4? is a fancy tactic that traded pieces and didn’t lose material, but the problem was that White isolated the d-pawn and captured it quickly.

With draws on all other boards, Uzbekistan secured the match 2.5-1.5. The young matchups of GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov vs. GM Yagiz Erdogmus and GM Javokhir Sindarov vs. GM Ediz Gurel on the top two boards were exciting, but the Uzbek super-GMs are likely happy (at the expense of fans) that there wasn’t much drama there. The only player older than 20 in those pairings, the 22-year-old Abdusattorov is already quite the veteran!

In the match between the U.S. and Ukraine, GM Wesley So (with Black) scored the first win against GM Anton Korobov on board two after, similarly, isolating a pawn and then winning it. You can watch GM Peter Svidler‘s analysis of that game for FIDE in the eight-minute video below.

But things weren’t so clear, as it looked like the 18-year-old European champion was on his way to crushing GM Levon Aronian on board four.

18-year-old European Champion Roman Dehtiarov of Ukraine is outplaying American Levon Aronian on board four!
https://t.co/tPHic9ephW#ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/vlHU0lDjKI

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 19, 2026

Aronian said he evaluated his position as “dead lost,” and he saw the correct 24.Bd3 for his opponent as a simple but crushing move. Yet the trend turned in the other direction after the Ukrainian went another way: with a knight sacrifice. Aronian was forced to sacrifice his queen in return for an absolutely chaotic position and went on to outplay his opponent—yet another example of the Armenian-American landing a knockout with his back against the wall.

“I didn’t see many chances, but I thought to myself, I’m going to get mated… I could just suffer, but I thought at least I’ll die standing up!” Aronian told Chess.com’s FM Mike Klein. GM Rafael Leitao analyzes the Game of the Day below. (It will be added soon.)

I could just suffer, but I thought at least I’ll die standing up!

—Levon Aronian

Although it wasn’t necessary to win the match, GM Fabiano Caruana also defeated GM Vasyl Ivanchuk (who substituted GM Igor Kovalenko, on 2.5/3) on board one, and the United States won the match 3.5-0.5, with the one draw in GM Hans Niemann vs. GM Ihor Samunenkov. 

After losing two games in a row, America’s debutant GM Awonder Liang sat out of round four, but Aronian said he’s sure the 23-year-old will bounce back. Aronian said that the pressure seems to have affected Liang’s play, but also, “He’s a tremendously strong player. He just needs to get his positions. He’ll get it, I’m sure.”

GM Arjun Erigaisi scored the first point for India against Spain with one of his trademark attacks. 26.0-0!! is the move that stood out most, leaving his knight hanging to finish development. GM Maksim Chigaev managed to avoid checkmate by trading into a pawn-down endgame, but that was the only good news. The endgame was lost.

Draws on the remaining boards would have been enough, but Gukesh scored his third win in the event against GM Alexei Shirov on board four after his opening advantage led to winning the exchange. The game was still very complicated, but World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju converted the advantage and India won 3-1.

Since briefly dropping under 2700 in round two, Gukesh has won twice to reverse the trend in the positive direction.

With 13.5/16, China has scored the most points of any team in the Olympiad so far, and this may count toward tiebreaks later. Their board two, GM Wei Yi, won a sparkling game against Serbia’s GM Aleksandar Indjic with White in the Petroff Defense.

A methodical buildup, with White gaining space on the kingside, culminated in the stunning sacrifice 32.Nxf7!! that led to a windmill motif, one we don’t often see played out at the elite level. Indjic had little choice in the matter from there, shuffling his queen between a8 and b8 as White swung a wrecking ball at the black center and king.

China’s board four GM Xiangrui Kong scored another win against GM Bojan Maksimovic to win the match 3-1, with draws on the other two boards.

Germany vs. Poland was a close encounter, but GM Alexander Donchenko pulled through for Germany, with the black pieces on board four, to win the only game of the match against GM Jakub Kosakowski. Hungary vs. Israel was a similar story, with GM Benjamin Gledura scoring the match point for a second time, against GM Avital Boruchovsky.

Looking at the next 20 boards down, we can see that England recovered from an upset draw in the previous round to beat Singapore, the team that upset Norway in round three.

Lithuania has continued to impress, after making that draw against the higher-rated English team in round three. In round four, they overcame the nearly 100-points higher-rated Croatia 3-1, with two wins scored by GM Paulius Pultinevicius (against GM Ante Brkic) and IM Pijus Stremavicius (against GM Sasa Martinovic). Both players are on a perfect 3/3 score.

On board 54, Sri Lanka defeated the approximately 150-point higher-rated Chile as well, with one win by CM S Sivathanujan (2180) against IM Mauricio Marrujo (2422) on board two, with three draws in the other games.

In round five, the first four matches feature teams with perfect scores. The eight teams may be cut to four!

Round 5 Pairings | Top 10 

Women: Alice Lee Early Contender For Individual Medal

Full results

The United States, which has yet to win team gold at the Olympiad, defeated Spain 3.5-0.5. Across four matches and 16 games, they have made just two draws to attain an unmatched 15/16 points. Is this their year?

Board four IM Tatev Abrahamyan scored the first point thanks to an opening snafu from WGM Monica Calzetta, who dropped a pawn after allowing 10.Bxc5!. If the bishop is taken, 11.axb4 wins the rook in the corner.

And then IM Carissa Yip won a rook endgame against IM Marta Garcia on board one, while IM Alice Lee defeated IM Sabrina Vega with a deadly pair of connected passed pawns in the center. Lee is the only player with a perfect 4/4 on her team and is a strong contender to win an individual medal if she carries on with this quality of play.

Carissa Yip, Alice Lee, and Tatev Abrahamyan all have perfect scores!#ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/oNQWx7UGKt

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 19, 2026

India looked great against Mongolia with wins on board three (WCM Khishigbaatar Bayasgalan vs. GM Divya Deshmukh 0-1) and board four (IM Savitha Shri vs. IM Batkhuyag Munguntuul) coming in first. Savitha, who’s on a perfect 4/4 in her first Olympiad, found a forcing way to win her fourth game in a row.

With draws on the top two boards, India triumphed 3-1. As Divya told FIDE, top seed India hopes to repeat what they did in Budapest in 2024: win gold. “It will be the first for India. It was our first last time that we won, and it will be the first if we defend it!” she said.