Leaders SuperChess Romania and Novy Bor Chess Club fought out a thrilling draw in round six of the 2026 European Chess Club Cup, with wins for GMs Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Bogdan-Daniel Deac balanced out by wins for GMs Nihal Sarin and David Navara. That enabled top-seed Bayegan Pendik Chess Sports Club to rejoin them in the lead before the final round, after a nerve-wracking 3.5-2.5 win over Tuxera Aquaprofit Nagykanizsai. GMs Amin Tabatabaei and Volodar Murzin more than made up for GM Anish Giri losing on top board to GM Pranesh M.     

We also have a trio of leaders in the 2026 European Women's Chess Club Cup after fourth-seed CE Gambit Bonnevoie, which had beaten the first, second, and third seeds, finally fell to the fifth—Odlar Yurdu. The match was decided by a single win, for IM Khanim Balajayeva over IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya, while they were caught by defending champion Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo, which also relied on a single win—IM Stavroula Tsolakidou's defeat of IM Deimante Daulyte-Cornette.

The final round is on Friday, October 23, starting at 8 a.m. ET / 14:00 CEST / 5:30 p.m. IST.

Open: Dramatic Deadlock At Top Sets Up Final-Round Thriller

There were four wins as the last two remaining perfect teams fought out a 3-3 tie at the top, enabling the Turkish top seed to catch them with a narrow win.

Two of the leaders, SuperChess Romania and Bayegan Pendik Chess Sports Club, face off in the final round, while Novy Bor takes on Elektroprivreda, a single point back. Cheddleton, Marseille, and Rishon can also sneak onto the podium with a win, though their tiebreaks likely make gold an impossibility.   

Open Standings After Round 6 (Top 12)

The penultimate round was all we could have hoped for, with incredibly tense battles in the top matches.

That was summed up by the battle on top board between the two teams on a perfect 10/10 score. As Abdusattorov described it: "I played against my good friend, my namemate [GM] Nodirbek Yakubboev."

Abdusattorov said it was "annoying" to have to play a friend, but on the board neither player held back as Abdusattorov unleashed some sharp home preparation with 11.g4 and Yakubboev responded in kind.

The word that Abdusattorov kept returning to was "complicated," but in the end he managed to punish a final mistake and clinch an important win.

That sharp win after enterprising opening preparation was matched on board two by Nihal, who delayed putting a knight on f3 and was grateful that his opponent, GM Jorden van Foreest, was unprepared for the idea. The Dutchman was only really in trouble, however, when he went for 17...g5?, which Nihal said, "felt a bit outrageous to me!" The finish would ultimately be brutal.

The drama continued elsewhere, with Deac outplaying GM Nils Grandelius in an endgame, while Navara proved to be the hero by ending the five-game winning streak of GM Daniel Dardha. Navara was winning for most of the game, although he almost let his Belgian opponent escape after sacrificing a piece near the end.

The last hope for a SuperChess win was GM Haik Martirosyan playing a pawn-up endgame but, playing the longest game for a second day in a row, GM Pentala Harikrishna confidently held.   

That tie meant three teams could catch the leaders. One was Elektroprivreda, which was held to a 3-3 draw by second-seed Alkaloid, while the other teams faced off in a match ultimately won by the top-seeded team led by Giri.

As you can see, things didn't quite go as planned for the leader, though Giri had over a half-hour lead on the clock and a significant advantage after Pranesh played 22.Bxe5! (the exclamation mark is because alternatives were clearly worse). Giri thought for just four and a half minutes before grabbing the bishop—which was losing on the spot! He only stopped for deep thought a couple of moves later, but by then there was no salvation.

That stumble didn't prove costly, since Giri's teammates rallied round to offset the loss. Tabatabaei got into wild time trouble against GM Andrei Volokitin, but wrapped up victory by move 40. A move earlier, Volokitin could still have escaped!

Similar drama took place as Murzin beat GM Maksim Chigaev, with the 2024 world rapid champion admitting, "Probably I mixed up something in the opening and then I had a bad position and I was low on time, but in one moment I tricked my opponent with a tactic." Murzin was down to 18 seconds when he played 33.Rc1, while Chigaev got down to eight seconds before making the losing blunder 33...Ne4?. The immediate blow is perhaps easy to spot—but it only wins because of a couple of twists in the tail! 

GM Ihor Samunenkov had a promising position against GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, but in the end he couldn't squeeze out a win with his extra pawn.

After their win, Bayegan Pendik Chess Sports Club now takes on SuperChess Romania in the final round, while fellow leader Novy Bor faces Elektroprivreda. Those matches promise to be the most tense yet, with multiple scenarios possible—and some calculators needed in case of ties!   

Women: Leaders Beaten As Three Teams Vie For Title

The situation in the Women's European Club Cup is remarkably similar, though it took the runaway leader losing in the penultimate round to set things up. CE Gambit Bonnevoie had defeated the top three seeds, but finally met its match against Odlar Yurdu.

Odlar Yurdu caught their defeated opponent and was joined by Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo. The leading trio can still be caught (on match points if not necessarily tiebreaks) since they don't play each other but instead the group on eight points. 

Women's Standings After Round 6 (Top 12)

The Azerbaijan team of Odlar Yurdu looked like the last chance to stop CE Gambit Bonnevoie from cruising to the European Club Cup title—and that's just what they did!

The first three boards saw tight battles that ended in draws, while on the bottom board we got an endgame that could have gone either way. Maltsevskaya, the hero the day before, had a fleeting chance to win by force, but instead Balajayeva took over and ensured a tense final round.

That was a chance for Monte-Carlo to regain the lead, and they took it, if not exactly smoothly.

After a draw on top board, Tsolakidou gave Monte-Carlo an early boost with a convincing win over Daulyte-Cornette, whose early f-pawn push with Black backfired.

Monte-Carlo went on to win the match, though only after GM Pia Cramling escaped a lost position against IM Marsel Efroimski, and GM Koneru Humpy defended brilliantly to hold a 95-move draw in a pawn-down position against IM Dinara Wagner. 

Monte Carlo team captain Almira Skripchenko congratulates Humpy Koneru on holding a match-winning 95-move draw! https://t.co/O0rvxJ3gef https://t.co/WxxRhvZyNO

— chess24 ( @chess24com) October 22, 2026

Monte-Carlo, on paper, has by far the easiest pairing in the final round, taking on 15th-seed Davit Jojua's Chess Club, while Odlar Yurdu has the tough task of facing second-seed Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica. CE Gambit Bonnevoie will be hopeful of beating seventh-seed Crvena Zvezda and proving the penultimate round was just a blip. 

Away from the battle for gold, one player to watch will again be 11-year-old FM Bodhana Sivanandan. She'll likely need "only" a draw against 2116-rated WIM Irina Tetenkina to become the seventh youngest international master ever—at 11 years, seven months, and 16 days.  

As you can see, she'd be in impressive company!