FIDE has published the final allocation of 2027 World Cup and Women’s World Cup places earned at the Samarkand Olympiad. After the continental transfers, 83 national federations in the Open section and 45 in the Women’s section have secured a place.
The Open list
Uzbekistan heads the Open table, followed by India, Germany and the United States. Azerbaijan, Armenia, Hungary, China, France and Spain complete the top ten. Ukraine, England, Turkiye, Poland, Iran, the Netherlands and Romania fill out places 11 to 17.
The list runs down to Oman at 83. Much of its back half is a tour of smaller chess nations, including Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Bangladesh, Madagascar, Uganda, Mozambique, Nepal and Myanmar. For many of these federations, an Olympiad team result is the realistic way into a knockout field of this size.
The Women’s list
The Women’s order differs sharply. China is first, then Kazakhstan, India, the United States, Poland, Armenia, Mongolia, Georgia, Vietnam and Slovenia. Uzbekistan, top of the Open, appears at 13th among the women.
Several federations qualify in the Open but do not appear among the women’s qualifiers at all. Examples from the lists are Israel, Belarus, Italy, Denmark, Belgium and Portugal. Women’s places stop at Malaysia in 45th.
Spots handed to continental events
Not every Olympiad place stays with the Olympiad. FIDE’s regulations let each continent transfer allocated spots to its own continental events. Europe, Africa and the Americas chose to do so before the Olympiad began.
In total, 17 Open and 5 Women’s places were transferred. Those will now be decided in continental tournaments, which gives players outside the national teams a regional route in. FIDE says the move encourages stronger competition at continental level.
What happens next
Each federation holding a place must choose which player takes it, picking from the members of its Olympiad team. If every team member has already qualified another way, or declines, the federation may give the place to any player it likes.
Federations are expected to confirm their representatives between 1 and 15 July 2027. Questions go to FIDE’s Global Strategy Commission at gsc@fide.com.
The format of the knockout itself is covered in our guide to how the FIDE World Cup works, and the Samarkand event in our Chess Olympiad guide.
Original source: FIDE
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