
The German national team celebrates bronze in the most important team tournament in chess, while Uzbekistan wins gold.
AI-generated summary
Germany won the last medal at a Chess Olympiad in Istanbul in 2000.
The German national chess team won a medal at the Olympics for the first time in 26 years. At the most important team competition in the chess world in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, the team led by top player Vincent Keymer won bronze. Uzbekistan won gold, silver went to India.
Before the tournament, Germany was considered a promising outsider. In the eleventh and final round, the German team defeated the Netherlands 2.5 to 1.5. Former World Cup candidate Matthias Blübaum won his game against Jorden van Foreest. Vincent Keymer and the brothers Frederik and Rasmus Svane played a draw. With the victory, the German team defended its third place in the table and took bronze. “I’m so happy,” said Frederik Svane afterwards on chess.com: “I actually can’t believe it.”
The German national team won its last medal at a Chess Olympiad in the open division in Istanbul in 2000, when the team won silver with Grandmaster Robert Hübner, among others.
Uzbekistan wins gold
During the tournament in Samarkand, German chess fans were briefly able to dream of even greater success. The German team defeated, among others, the favored Uzbeks around top player Nodirbek Abdusattorov and World Cup challenger Javohir Sindarov, but then lost to the strong Indian team with world champion Dommaraju Gukesh.
Uzbekistan and India – winners of the last two Olympics – started the tournament as favorites. After the victory at home, Grandmaster Abdusattorov said: "This is the proudest moment of my life." And Sindarov, who is only 20 years old, declared: "I won my second Olympiad, and before I turned 21, I am very happy." At the end of the year he could also become world champion in classical chess in a duel against Gukesh.
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