GM Anish Giri scored a crushing win over GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov as top-seed Bayegan Pendik Chess Sports Club beat defending champion SuperChess Romania 3.5-2.5 to win the 2026 European Chess Club Cup. Novy Bor Chess Club missed out on gold on tiebreaks despite overpowering  Elektroprivreda 4.5-1.5, while GM Boris Gelfand-led Rishon LeZion A snatched bronze by winning the battle of the underdogs against Cheddleton Savills Catering 5.5-0.5.   

Defending champion Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo clinched the 2026 European Women's Chess Club Cup after a 4-0 win in the final round helped them finish above CE Gambit Bonnevoie on tiebreaks, with Monte-Carlo also claiming individual gold on boards one (GM Aleksandra Goryachkina), two (GM Koneru Humpy), and four (GM Elisabeth Paehtz). Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica took bronze after a 3.5-0.5 victory over the round-six heroes, Odlar Yurdu.

Meanwhile 11-year-old FM Bodhana Sivanandan won on demand to score her final IM norm and become the seventh youngest IM of all time—a feat we've covered in this separate report. 

Open: Giri, Tabatabaei Strike As Top Seeds Take Gold

Bayegan Pendik Chess Sports Club surprisingly easily won the battle of the leaders against SuperChess Romania, but looked on nervously as Novy Bor Chess Club racked up a big score to beat Elektroprivreda—the margin of the win could matter for tiebreaks.

In the end, however, Bayegan Pendik took gold by 8.5 tiebreak points. Rishon LeZion A, who won all their matches except for a loss to Novy Bor in round four, took bronze, while SuperChess Romania still earned a spot in the 2027 European Chess Super League.   

Open Final Standings (Top 18)

The big clash in the final round was between two of the co-leaders, led by Giri and Abdusattorov. 

Giri went into the match having suffered a painful loss to GM Pranesh M, after earlier losing to another Indian GM Pranav Venkatesh. He joked about the two names when he joined GM Simon Williams in the studio after the game.

Anish Giri: "Frankly, I’ve just been struggling with people whose name begins with the letters Pra!" https://t.co/7gRldzEyIU

— chess24 ( @chess24com) October 23, 2026

He added, "I usually win when it's least expected!"

I usually win when it's least expected!

—Anish Giri 

Against the tournament's highest-rated player, world number-five GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, everything went like a dream. Giri called his opponent's 15...e5!? "slightly overambitious," but things really took a turn for the worse for the Uzbek star when he went for 17...Bg4?!.

Giri said, "he bluffed a little here," continuing, "He knows that I’m usually lazy and so on, but OK, it’s too tempting to calculate one line in a row, so I performed this difficult job!" Giri left his rook en prise, and when Abdusattorov took it, overlooking some tactical details, the game was effectively over!  

Things got worse for SuperChess Romania when GM Amin Tabatabaei gained a close to winning position right out of the opening, though GM Haik Martirosyan at least managed to survive to a pawn-down rook endgame, where accidents can always happen. As that game continued, 15-year-old GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus got dangerously low on time in a tricky position against GM Jorden van Foreest, and fell for what may have been a bluff—there was no reason not to grab the offered a4-pawn, and when he didn't he was lost.

"Yagiz is an incredible calculator, so he must have seen too much!" was Giri's assessment of the decision not to grab the pawn.

The prodigy's loss didn't harm his team, however, since Tabatabaei confidently went on to get the job done. That meant gold or silver for his team, while SuperChess Romania would finish just off the podium.

The one team that could catch the top seed was Novy Bor, and the three-time champions (Giri: "They’ve been winning this tournament since I was a child!") did win their sixth match to tie for points at the top of the standings.

The three players to win all had standout events, with GM David Navara scoring 5/6 and taking silver on board six, GM Pentala Harikrishna scoring 5/6 for silver on board three (he only missed out on gold as FM Lennert Lenaerts scored 100 percent against weaker opposition), and GM Nihal Sarin scoring, you guessed it, 5/6, for gold on board two.

Nihal's 2859 performance gained him 11.1 rating points and took him up to a career-best world number-18 on the live rating list. 

In the final round Nihal beat fellow Indian GM Karthikeyan Murali, who still took bronze on board two. It was an impressive game, with Nihal playing a rare fifth move in the French and soon gaining an edge, before castling queenside, shutting down the queenside, and then launching an unstoppable attack.

The bronze medal, meanwhile, would be decided in a match between the ninth and 16th seeds, who had had similar events—five wins against weaker opposition sandwiched around a single loss to a top team. It was the higher-rated Rishon LeZion A who eased to victory, dashing the hopes of Cheddleton Savills Catering of an unlikely medal.

You can check out all the individual board prizes and individual results here.

Women: Monte-Carlo Defends Title

The Women's European Club Cup differed in that the three leaders had already played each other, so instead they faced teams two points below them. Monte-Carlo and Gambit Bonnevoie both won, while Odlar Yurdu, who had made the last round interesting by defeating the runaway leaders in round six, this time slumped to a heavy defeat against the second seed.

Monte-Carlo clinched a ninth title on tiebreaks over Gambit, while Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica took bronze. It's notable that the top-seven seeds occupied the top-seven spots, if not fully in the expected order.

Women's Final Standings

Monte Carlo faced the 15th seed in the final round, and the match did prove to be the expected walkover.

It wasn't quite as smooth under the surface. For instance, Humpy was lost against WFM Nia Donghvani, but with under a minute on the clock the Georgian player missed the tactical trick. Her position collapsed soon afterward.

The victory was perhaps even sweeter since it came after the blow of losing to Gambit in round four.

🏆 Delighted to win the European Chess Club Cup Women 2026 with Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo! 🇲🇨♟️ My association with this wonderful club started in 2007 and has always been special, and I’m proud to be part of its journey. A fantastic team effort and a memorable victory alongside such wonderful teammates ❤️ #ECCC2026 #Chess

— Koneru Humpy ( @humpy_koneru) October 23, 2026

Gambit took silver after a hard-won victory over Crvena Zvezda, with WIM Adela Velikic scoring a surprisingly smooth win over GM Elina Danielian for the Serbian side. GM Anna Ushenina scored an equally convincing win on top board, however, and IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya once again picked up a crucial win. 

Maltsevskaya got to pounce on move 16!

Gambit Bonnevoie narrowly missed out on gold, while the team that had beaten them in the previous round, Odlar Yurdu, missed out on bronze as they were put to the sword by Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica. 

The 2026 Women's European Club Cup is likely to be most remembered, however, for an 11-year-old—Sivanandan crossed 2400 then completed her third and final IM norm with a win on demand in the final round.

She didn't just break GM Judit Polgar's record as the youngest ever female IM, but is seventh youngest on the overall list—if she continues on the current trajectory we can hope to see her fighting to win open events and reach the world elite. There's more on Sivanandan in our separate article.