The Week in Chess

Mukhiddin Madaminov won the 3rd Uzchess Cup in Tashkent, a real surprise as he was the bottom seed and there as a replacement for Javokhir Sindarov. Madaminov won a final blitz tie-break 2-0 against fellow Uzbekistani Shamsiddin Vokhidov who also wasn't one of the favourites.

Madaminov's victory came after a long game against Hans Moke Niemann where he was pressing for a win but was also in danger of losing at one stage. He didn't have more than a few minutes to prepare for the tie-break.

19-year-old Madaminov has played most of his recent chess in Asia which according to Vlad Ghita suffers from rating deflation, potentially making him very underrated. Madaminov has also been working as Sindarov's second since the 2025 World Cup no doubt that's helped him a lot.

The FIDE Olympiad takes place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan September 15 to 28, 2026. The founding of the UzChess Cup was part of the "national preparation programme for hosting and competing in the 46th World Chess Olympiad (2026)." That program has already seen the rise of Nodirbek Abdusattorov followed by Javokhir Sindarov who won the Candidates, they both currently have the same rating tied at 2777 and 4th/5th in the world rankings. Uzbekistan will have a very competitive team.

Half a point behind the leaders were Arjun Erigaisi, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov all of whom had decent enough tournaments. Every player lost at least one game, the most bizarre being Nodirbek Abdusattorov who was having an indifferent tournament until round 8, he'd got a win in Round 2 against Mamedyarov and drawn the rest, his loss came against tail-ender Nikolas Theodorou in a strange way, in a very level position he didn't register his Rook was attacked the previous move, picked up his King, realised at that moment what he'd done and just had to resign.

I know there's a refrain going round along the lines of "who says classical chess is dead?" but "who says classical chess is dead?" this was a really super tournament.