The head coaches of the Ukrainian national team, Alexander Belyavskyi and Mykhailo Brodskyi, announced the men’s and women’s rosters for the 46th Chess Olympiad. The event will take place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, from September 15 to 28.

Men’s roster:

  • 🇺🇦 Igor Kovalenko (2672)
  • 🇺🇦 Ruslan Ponomaryov (2632)
  • 🇺🇦 Vasily Ivanchuk (2628)
  • 🇺🇦 Anton Korobov (2621)
  • 🇺🇦 Igor Samunenkov (2616)

Women’s roster:

  • 🇺🇦 Anastasiia Hnatyshyn (2465)
  • 🇺🇦 Anna Ushenina (2426)
  • 🇺🇦 Natalia Buksa (2382)
  • 🇺🇦 Anastasiya Rakhmangulova (2321)
  • 🇺🇦 Tatiana Skarbarchuk (2240)

Ukraine’s No. 1 female player Anna Muzychuk will not participate in the Olympiad. The Ukrainian Chess Federation did not state the reason for Muzychuk’s absence from the team. Anna herself had not made a public statement at the time of publication.

The event features a 90+30 time control for the first 40 moves and 30+30 for the rest of the game over 11 rounds in the Swiss System between around 200 teams. In case of a tie for first place, the winning team will be determined on tiebreaks.

The Chess Olympiad is a prestigious national team competition. The event is held every two years and organized by FIDE. The 2026 Olympiad follows the 2024 edition held in Budapest, Hungary, where India won gold in both the men’s and women’s groups.

Credit: Yoav Nisenbaum / FIDE