Anish Giri
Top seed Bayegan Pendik Chess Sports Club won the 2026 European Chess Club Cup by beating defending champion SuperChess Romania 3.5-2.5 in the final round. GM Anish Giri scored a crushing win over GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov.
That was a sweet turnaround for Giri and Erdogmus, who had both lost in round 4, as we reported. Giri answered in the game that mattered most.
A nervous wait on tiebreaks
Pendik won the battle of the leaders more easily than the scoreline suggests. Even so, they looked on nervously, because Novy Bor Chess Club was piling up points against Elektroprivreda.
Novy Bor won that match 4.5-1.5. A margin like that matters in a Swiss-style event where teams finish level on match points and the tiebreak decides gold. In the end Bayegan Pendik took the title by 8.5 tiebreak points.
Novy Bor and SuperChess had arrived at round 6 at 10/10 each. Pendik’s earlier rescue by Murzin after a top-board loss now looks like a title-saving moment.
Bronze and the Super League
GM Boris Gelfand-led Rishon LeZion A took bronze. They beat Cheddleton Savills Catering 5.5-0.5 in what the report called the battle of the underdogs.
Rishon won every match except a round-four loss to Novy Bor. SuperChess Romania, despite losing the final, still earned a spot in the 2027 European Chess Super League.
Women’s Cup and a young IM
Defending champion Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo retained the European Women’s Chess Club Cup. A 4-0 win in the final round put them above CE Gambit Bonnevoie on tiebreaks.
Monte-Carlo also took individual gold on three boards: GM Aleksandra Goryachkina on board one, GM Koneru Humpy on board two and GM Elisabeth Paehtz on board four. Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica won bronze with a 3.5-0.5 victory over Odlar Yurdu, the heroes of round six.
Away from the team results, 11-year-old FM Bodhana Sivanandan won on demand to score her final IM norm. That makes her the seventh youngest IM of all time.
How the Finnish clubs finished
Etela-Vantaan Shakki beat fellow Finnish side Gambiitti 3.5-2.5 in round 7. Etela-Vantaan, seed 71, had opened with a 0-6 loss to LSG but won three matches overall, including a 5½-½ result over SK Weisse Dame Hamburg in round 4.
Aatos (seed 72) closed with a 5½-½ win over Paul Keres 2, after winning 6-0 against St Benildus in round 2 and 4-2 against Cardiff A in round 4. Gambiitti (seed 88) won twice, 5-1 against S.S. Lazio Scacchi and 3½-2½ against Standard de Liege TAL, before the derby loss.
Original source: Chess.com
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