Uzbekistan's Lead Holds as Ding Liren Blunders in Round 10

The penultimate round in Samarkand did what penultimate rounds are supposed to do: it separated genuine medal contenders from teams just hanging on. Uzbekistan and India both won 3.5-0.5, so the top of the open standings barely moved, but the margin now matters. Uzbekistan carries a full match point into the final round, backed by a 30-point tiebreak cushion over India.

Uzbekistan’s win over Armenia was built on preparation and tactics rather than grinding. Javokhir Sindarov beat Robert Hovhannisyan with what FIDE called “a very nice piece of home preparation” featuring an exchange sacrifice, and Mukhiddin Madaminov, Sindarov’s second during the Candidates, immediately followed up with a tactical win over Gabriel Sargissian on board four.

Nodirbek Abdusattorov sealed the 3.5-0.5 scoreline with a long endgame win on board one, pushing his personal score to an undefeated 8/10, in what FIDE described as the best chess of his career so far.

India refused to blink. Nihal Sarin opened the scoring against Uzbekistan 2 by beating Mukhammadzokhid Suyarov with black after accepting two sacrificed pawns and grinding the point home.

World champion Gukesh D then won a tactical ending against Ortik Nigmatov on board four to clinch the match, and Praggnanandhaa added a board-one win to complete the 3.5-0.5 result. That keeps India’s medal hopes alive into the last round, a story The Chess Herald has tracked closely as the race tightened.

The round’s biggest shock came from Ukraine, who needed China to slip and got exactly that. Igor Kovalenko beat former world champion Ding Liren on board one after roughly 20 quiet moves of maneuvering left Ding with a passive bishop pair and structural weaknesses.

Instead of the natural 44…Rd8 or 44…Qd7, Ding played 44…Re6?, and 45.Ne3! forked the attacked queen and rook, costing him the exchange outright.

Boards two and three drew, but teenage European champion Roman Dehtiarov beat Xiangrui Kong on board four to seal the match for Ukraine, who have now won three straight and put themselves back into real medal contention.

Germany and Hungary also stayed alive with matching 3-1 wins, Germany over France and Hungary over Spain, keeping both teams in the mix heading into the final round.

Turlov’s election drew a ceremonial pause before the round began. Principal arbiter Ivan Syrovy announced that Timur Turlov had just won the FIDE presidential election at the nearby Congress Center, beating Wadim Rosenstein 110 votes to 85 in the second round of voting and becoming the federation’s eighth president,

before ceremonial first moves were played on several boards, including Armenia’s Haik Martirosyan facing 1.e4 and Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov switching from 1…c6 to a Scandinavian Defence.

In the women’s section, China’s lead survived a tense tie against India. Vantika Agrawal suffered her first loss of the event against Lu Miaoyi, who is undefeated on 8.5/10, while Savitha Shri improved to a remarkable 8.5/9 by beating Zhai Mo. Kazakhstan closed to within one match point of China after edging France 2.5-1.5, with the deciding moment coming when Elnaz Kaliakhmet turned a losing position against Pauline Guichard.

Elsewhere, Mongolia’s medal push took a serious hit with a 3-1 loss to Poland, while Vietnam kept an outside chance alive by beating Indonesia 2.5-1.5 for a fourth consecutive match win. The final round now decides gold, silver and bronze in both sections, with Uzbekistan’s hosts needing one more strong result to complete a home triumph.

Open standings after Round 10 of 11

#	Team	W–D–L	Match Points	Board Points
1	Uzbekistan	9–0–1	18	30
2	India	8–1–1	17	26.5
3	Germany	8–0–2	16	26
4	Ukraine	8–0–2	16	26.5
5	Hungary	7–2–1	16	22.5
6	USA	7–1–2	15	26
7	Azerbaijan	6–3–1	15	26
8	Turkiye	7–1–2	15	26.5
9	Croatia	7–1–2	15	28
10	Uzbekistan 2	7–1–2	15	24.5

Women standings after Round 10 of 11

#	Team	W–D–L	Match Points	Board Points
1	China	8–2–0	18	30
2	Kazakhstan	7–3–0	17	27
3	India	7–2–1	16	29
4	Poland	8–0–2	16	26.5
5	Vietnam	8–0–2	16	27.5
6	USA	7–1–2	15	29.5
7	Uzbekistan	7–1–2	15	27.5
8	Georgia	6–3–1	15	26.5
9	Armenia	7–1–2	15	25.5
10	Romania	7–1–2	15	28.5