ply.fun
Chess Olympiad 2026

Round 1

392 of 404 games finished, 94% of them decisive. 73 teams won 4–0. China had the best team performance, 2578.

CompleteUpdated 28 Sept 2026, 17:03 CEST, 12 forfeits

Round 1 in numbers

392

games finished of 404

94%

decisive; White scored 51%

39

moves per game

89

moves in the longest game

Results

189

White wins, 48%

22

draws, 6%

181

Black wins, 46%

23 checkmates on the board, 2 draws by repetition, 0 stalemates, 0 draws before move 30 and 11 forfeits.

Played, per the official results: Vepaly Halynyazov – Mario Melo Nascimento ended 1–0; the broadcast marks it unplayed and has no moves (chess-results, round 1, board 65.4).

Played, per the official results: IM Christopher Leonel Garzon Zapatanga – Arso Ahmed Hassaballh ended 1–0; the broadcast marks it unplayed and has no moves (chess-results, round 1, board 87.2).

Played, per the official results: Aboubakar Ali – Eddy Ernesto Enrique Hernandez ended 0–1; the broadcast marks it unplayed and has no moves (chess-results, round 1, board 87.3).

Played, per the official results: IM Miguel Munoz Sanchez – Mahamat Idriss Seidna ended 1–0; the broadcast marks it unplayed and has no moves (chess-results, round 1, board 87.4).

Accuracy and time

89.6%

average accuracy, as Lichess scores it

1.71

blunders per game

550

mistakes, as Lichess marks them

659

blunders, as Lichess marks them

2:25

average time per move

9%

of moves played with under 5 minutes left

Lichess analysed 386 of 388 finished games, with 1,644 inaccuracies, 550 mistakes and 659 blunders. Times come from the relay clocks of 337 games. The extra 30 minutes after move 40 showed up on move 41 or 42 for 70% of 161 players, and never for 50 players who went past move 45.

Game awards

Not awarded this round: Bare King Optimist, Houdini.

Player awards

Ratings, titles and ages

Clock awards

Not awarded this round: Flag Fall.

From the relay clocks of 337 of 388 finished games; games with missing, hand-entered or corrected clocks are left out, and time left after move 40 counts only once the clock shows the extra 30 minutes.

Engine awards

Not awarded this round: Lucky Escape.

From Lichess’s computer analysis of 386 of 388 finished games. 2 more join when the round is updated the next evening. Inaccuracies, mistakes and blunders are the ones Lichess marks on the move.

Chess culture

Never Play f6

50% scored by all who tried

14 more, tied

Ben Finegold says never push the f-pawn one square. These players did it by move 10 (f3 or …f6) and won anyway.

Not awarded this round: The Carlsen Grind, Short’s King Walk.

Homages to chess memes, famous games and Samarkand lore, meant kindly. Brilliant!!, Botez Gambit and The Carlsen Grind use Lichess’s analysis of 386 of 388 finished games; the rest look at every finished game.

Collections

En Passant

20en passants

17 more

Every en passant capture of the round.

Family Fork

6forks

3 more

A knight gave check and attacked the queen at the same time, from a square where it could not simply be taken. The ones that won the queen come first.

Holy Hell

18left alone

15 more

En passant was on the board and the player left it alone. En passant is forced, allegedly.

Connect Four

13rows of pawns

10 more

Four or more pawns side by side on one rank beyond their starting rank. The first row of each player is listed, the longest first.

Not awarded this round: Pawn Diamond, The Hard One.

The awards that list every case instead of crowning one, read from the position on every move; the overview counts them across the rounds. The Hard One, Il Vaticano, the pawn shapes and Royal Court may well stay empty for a round or two.

Match awards

Whitewash

73matches

70 more

Won the match 4–0, forfeits included.

Comeback Match

4matches

1 more

Lost on board 1 and still won the match.

Not awarded this round: Slingshot, Treaty of Samarkand.

Rates over each team’s finished games of the round, four needed. The event-wide team awards, the category leaders and the board race are on the standings page.

Teams: style

Space Invaders

47.1per 100 moves

Most moves into the opponent's half per 100 of the team's own moves.

Check, Please

7checks per game

Most checks given per game over the team's finished games.

The Late Knight Show

5.75per game

Most knight moves from move 31 on, per game, over the team's finished games.

Chicken Nation

26.92retreats per 100 moves

Most retreating moves per 100 of the team's own moves; castling never counts.

Forward March

6.04retreats per 100 moves

Fewest retreating moves per 100 of the team's own moves.

Pawn Pushers

41.43pawn moves per 100 moves

Most pawn moves per 100 of the team's own moves.

Favourite Piece

For each piece, the team whose own moves have the highest share of it.

Wandering Kings

15.5king moves per game

Most king moves per game over the team's finished games.

Safety First

5average castling move

Earliest castling on average, over the games in which the team castled at all.

Finishers

2checkmates

4 more, tied

Most checkmates delivered on the board.

Déjà Vu

3½identical moves

Two of the team's games with the same colour that followed the same moves for longest; both are listed.

Teams: clocks

Deep Thinkers

3:26per move

Most seconds per move over the team's games with usable clocks.

Quick Draw

1:27per move

Fewest seconds per move over the team's games with usable clocks.

Zeitnot Nation

39% under five minutes

Highest share of moves played with under five minutes on the clock.

Time in the Bank

1:09:10left on average

Most time left on the clock after the last move, on average.

Over the relay clocks of 337 of 388 finished games; a team needs four such games.

Teams: engine

Precision Nation

97.2% accuracy

Highest average Lichess accuracy over the team's analysed games.

Escape Artists

2games saved

Most games won or drawn from a position the engine had at −3.00 or worse.

Over Lichess’s analysis of 386 of 388 finished games; a team needs four analysed games.

Notable games

Game phases

11

moves of opening

18

moves of middlegame

15

moves of endgame

Averages per game, with the phases split as Lichess splits them. 69% of the games reached an endgame; the first capture came on move 7.1 on average.

Endgames by type

EndgameReachedAt the end
Rook4537
Queen and rook188
King and pawn1612
Bishop169
Knight117
Queen86

A rook endgame has nothing but kings, pawns and rooks left; the others likewise, as the Lichess puzzle tagger defines them. A game can pass through several types, so the first column adds up to more than the games.

Reached, and still there at the end

Each band runs from the games that reached the endgame to those that still had it on the last move; the rest went on into another type. One scale for both columns.

ReachedAt the endRook 4537Queen and rook 188Bishop 169King and pawn 1612Knight 117Queen 86

Tactics

6,280

captures, 16.2 per game

1,377

checks

628

castled kingside

61

castled queenside

11

games without castling

27

promotions, 2 under

20

en passant captures

Openings

First moves

  1. 1.e4
    43%
  2. 1.d4
    34%
  3. 1.Nf3
    11%
  4. 1.c4
    10%
  5. 1.b3
    1%

Share of all finished games. Opening names and ECO codes come from Lichess, based on the position reached.

Every opening of the round

The round’s openings as a tree: the five volumes of the opening encyclopaedia (A flank openings, B semi-open games, C open games and the French, D closed games and the Grünfeld, E Indian defences), their families, and every variation played. A line grows with the games through it; the red thread leads to the round’s rarest openings.

AHungarian Opening 1Polish Opening 1Nimzo-Larsen Attack 3Bird Opening 1Zukertort Opening 7King's Indian Attack 4King's Indian Attack, with e6 1English Opening 42Réti Opening 6Horwitz Defense 1Queen's Pawn Game 1Rat Defense 2Benoni Defense 5Indian Defense 12Trompowsky Attack 2Torre Attack 2Yusupov-Rubinstein System 3Pseudo Queen's Indian Defense 1East Indian Defense 1London System 3Slav Indian 1Benko Gambit 1Dutch Defense 1BPirc Defense 2Rat Defense 1St. George Defense 1Scandinavian Defense 1Alekhine Defense 1Modern Defense 2Czech Defense 1Caro-Kann Defense 36Sicilian Defense 77CFrench Defense 18Vienna Game 1Philidor Defense 2Petrov's Defense 2Scotch Game 4Four Knights Game 2Italian Game 7Ruy Lopez 12DQueen's Pawn Game 17Rapport-Jobava System 2Rapport-Jobava System, with e6 1Richter-Veresov Attack 1Rubinstein Opening 1Slav Defense 6Queen's Gambit Accepted 5Queen's Gambit Declined 25Tarrasch Defense 2Semi-Slav Defense 4Neo-Grünfeld Defense 1Grünfeld Defense 1ECatalan Opening 6Indian Defense 5Bogo-Indian Defense 7Queen's Indian Defense 6Nimzo-Indian Defense 8King's Indian Defense 18

Point at a line or a name to name the opening; click to open it on Lichess.Tap a name to name the opening; tap it again to open it on Lichess.

Which openings won

A bar per family: White’s wins, the draws, Black’s wins. The tick is the family’s score for White, the grey line the round’s; a tick right of it, and White did better than usual. Framed in red, the best for White and the best for Black of the families with at least 5 games.

Round: White 51%gamesSicilian DefenseEnglish OpeningCaro-Kann DefenseQueen's Gambit Decl…French DefenseKing's Indian DefenseQueen's Pawn GameIndian DefenseRuy LopezNimzo-Indian DefenseBogo-Indian DefenseItalian GameZukertort OpeningCatalan OpeningQueen's Indian Defe…Réti OpeningSlav DefenseBenoni DefenseQueen's Gambit Acc…King's Indian AttackScotch GameSemi-Slav DefenseLondon SystemNimzo-Larsen AttackRat Defense7742362518181817128777666655444333
The numbers
FamilyGamesWhite winsDrawsBlack winsWhite’s score
Sicilian Defense773054242%
English Opening422131854%
Caro-Kann Defense362031360%
Queen's Gambit Declined251221152%
French Defense18130572%
King's Indian Defense18110761%
Queen's Pawn Game1884656%
Indian Defense17401324%
Ruy Lopez1251646%
Nimzo-Indian Defense830538%
Bogo-Indian Defense760186%
Italian Game730443%
Zukertort Opening730443%
Catalan Opening631258%
Queen's Indian Defense631258%
Réti Opening650183%
Slav Defense6600100%
Benoni Defense520340%
Queen's Gambit Accepted520340%
King's Indian Attack411238%
Scotch Game420250%
Semi-Slav Defense420250%
London System30030%
Nimzo-Larsen Attack320167%
Rat Defense310233%

Best for White

OpeningGamesWhite’s score
B30 Sicilian Defense: Nyezhmetdinov-Rossolimo Attack5100%
D53 Queen's Gambit Declined580%
A30 English Opening: Symmetrical Variation560%
B12 Caro-Kann Defense: Advance Variation, Botvinnik-Carls Defense658%

Best for Black

OpeningGamesWhite’s score
B22 Sicilian Defense: Alapin Variation, Barmen Defense510%
A45 Indian Defense: Accelerated London System520%
B23 Sicilian Defense: Closed540%
B12 Caro-Kann Defense: Advance Variation, Botvinnik-Carls Defense658%

Openings with at least 5 games.

Rarest openings of the round

Pieces

8,366

pawn moves, 28%

5,466

knight moves, 18%

4,749

bishop moves, 16%

4,861

rook moves, 16%

3,652

queen moves, 12%

3,090

king moves, 10%

Captured and surviving

PieceCapturedStill on the board at the end
pawns2,87253%
knights1,18824%
bishops1,07131%
rooks73753%
queens41250%

Checkmates

23on the board

12 by White, 11 by Black

Mating pieceGames
Queen16
  1. move 15Ulloa Castillo, Ruben Abraham PAN mated Delrieu, Marc VAN
  2. move 18Sezdbekov, Ruslan KGZ mated Koita, Saidou BUR
  3. move 26Yamada, Kohei JPN mated Mchangama Omar COM
  4. move 32Elena, Eduardo URU mated Davis, William BAH
  5. move 34Naiditsch, Arkadij BUL mated Heron, Andrew LIE
  6. move 35Svane, Frederik GER mated Rodgaard, John FAI
  7. move 37Bullen, Alex WLS mated Jeetlall, David SKN
  8. move 40Culum, Sanjin BIH mated Leardini, Mirko SMR
  9. move 44Mihajlov, Sebastian CRC mated Kate, Timothy SEY
  10. move 48Kuybokarov, Temur AUS mated El, Hadji Saidou Nourou BA SEN
  11. move 48Tapia Ostolaza, Alexei PAN mated Tasso Jayson VAN
  12. move 51Khafra, Enen-Sa-Tefa Ab TTO mated Mailangi, Sosefo TGA
  13. move 52Xhembulla, Aleksander ALB mated Place, Wolde BER
  14. move 68AIKHOJE, Odion NGR mated Bellier Pontais, Titouan NCL
  15. move 76Sonis, Francesco ITA mated Sai Han Thiha MYA
  16. move 89Smerdon, David C AUS mated Mlik Omar SEN
Rook5
  1. move 29Pantsulaia, Levan GEO mated Bulcha , Petros Olana ETH
  2. move 31Cabralis, Quinn TTO mated Tonutonu Donald TGA
  3. move 38Santos Latasa, Jaime ESP mated Elier, Ali LBA
  4. move 40Di Benedetto, Edoardo ITA mated Kyaw Thiha MYA
  5. move 80ABDULRAHEEM, Abdulrahman Akintoye NGR mated Galois, Mathieu NCL
Bishop1
  1. move 43Lizano Quiros, Matias Haziel CRC mated Hoareau, Benjamin SEY
Knight1
  1. move 32Zhakshylykov, Erzhan KGZ mated Lefebvre, Aurelien Tegawende BUR
Pawn0

The mating piece is read from the final position. A piece opens onto its mates.

Fastest mates

  1. Move 15, mate with the queenCM Ruben Abraham Ulloa Castillo PAN 21781againstMarc Delrieu VAN 15640
  2. Move 18, mate with the queenSaidou Koita BUR 17070againstFM Ruslan Sezdbekov KGZ 22161
  3. Move 26, mate with the queenMchangama Omar COM 17010againstFM Kohei Yamada JPN 22031
  4. Move 29, mate with the rookGM Levan Pantsulaia GEO 24921againstPetros Olana Bulcha ETH 19340
  5. Move 31, mate with the rookFM Quinn Cabralis TTO 22691againstTonutonu Donald TGA 14660

The mates on a move axis

A dot per checkmate on the move it fell, filled for a mate by White, hollow for one by Black, the fastest in red. Each piece in the list opens onto its games.

020406080100QueenRookBishopKnightPawn

Board heatmap

Darker means more moves, on a square-root scale.

Busiest squares

  1. d41,168
  2. d51,125
  3. e4983
  4. f6954
  5. f3943

Quietest square with any traffic: h1, 105.

Where the pieces went in the finished games of the round.