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Editor: Dr Tim Harding |
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Editor: Dr Tim Harding |
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© Dr Tim Harding
Last modified:
29 April 2026
For more information about chess for over-50s, please see our Seniors calendar. Newcomers to 50+ chess should read our Seniors introduction page.
The final round 9 was played yesterday in the resort of Durres in Albania, where the 2026 World Senior Team Championships (50+ and 65+) were contested.
Full results and the scores of all the players can be found on chess-results. (For the 65+ section click on the link there to the other tab.) There are separate awards for the top all-female teams in each section.
This page reported on the event every day; other senior news remains on the usual page.
For the first time in many years, no team from England won a medal in either section. Our British Seniors page has comments and the scores of all the UK teams. We also kept our Irish seniors page updated during this event.
The Open medals were won by the USA, Italy and Kazakhstan in that order. The Americans also won the women's gold medals.
The professional team from America retained this title comfortably, as expected. They led Italy by one match point and three game points before the final round and so a drawn match made them mathematically certain of victory.
The Americans clearly made no attempt to win against Iceland, all four games quickly being agreed drawn within ten moves. This had perhaps been pre-arranged between the captains. Iceland had presumably calculated that a drawn match was the best they could hope for as the medals were probably out of reach even if they had pulled off an unlikely victory. Iceland ended on 12 match points and ultimately finished fifth.
We have already seen some online criticism of the Americans, who also seem to have agreed a package deal with Kazakhstan in round seven, all four games being drawn within an hour. Such pre-arrangements are contrary to FIDE rules and could lead to disqualification in an Olympiad. It is, though, hard to enforce no-draw rules because there are so many well-known opening lines that lead to forced repetitions.
Italy duly won their match with the Oslo team, by 2.5-1.5 (thanks to a win on board 4) and so they drew level with USA on 15 MP but well behind on game points. Both these teams went through undefeated, drawing three matches and winning six.
The Kazakhstan team was the last of the top teams to finish. They reached 14MP by defeating the Iceland second team. They drew two matches but lost to Italy in round 5.
In the fourth match, England-1 won 4-0 against USA Women to reach 13MP, but this only meant they matched their 2025 placing of fourth.
In the fifth match, the England-3 team, which is largely composed of members of the Ledger family, scored a notable victory against the higher-rated team from North Macedonia sponsored by the Alkaloid company. Thanks to this, England-3 finished ahead of England-2 in the standings.
Hungary (placed fifth on tie-break) and England-3 each scored 11MP while England-2 were in the large group on 10MP that included the American female team, who won the women's gold medals.
In the fight for the female medals, the English women missed out because they had a harder last round match (losing by a narrow margin to Quebece) and were overtaken by the Czechs and Kazakhstan women who won their last round matches.
The Open 65+ medals were won by the Lasker club from Germany, Italy and Iceland in that order. The Russian women won the female gold medals.
In this section of 54 teams, the final destination of the medals was unclear before the last round. After eight rounds the Lasker club from Germany had 13 match points and no fewer than six squads were on 12MP. So, unlike the 50+ leaders, every team near the top had to fight.
Ultimately the Lasker team, who had initially been seeded first, won their match with Slovakia and so finished clear first. Their top board, former world championship candidate GM Artur Yussupow, drew all his eight games, some of them very short. The team's powerhouse was GM Jakob Meister who scored 6.5/8 playing his games on boards 3 and 4.
After three and a half hours play Italy beat England-2 by 3-1 to reach 14MP and take the silver medals.
The other top matches went into the fifth hour, although some board results were in. Eventually England-1 drew all their four games with Iceland. The team from Israel performed well to defeat the "FIDE" team and so prevent the Russians from getting on the podium.
Ultimately the bronze medal was decided on tiebreak because Iceland, England-1, Israel and France-1 all finished on 13MP but game points placed the Icelanders third so the English finished fourth in this section also.
The contest for the women's medals was won by the Russian women with 10MP on tie-break from Germany. The Latvian women were third, ahead of Poland.
Overall this was a very good campaign by the Italians who took silver in both age groups and will now probably think they can challenge England in the European Senior Team Championships which will be played in Crete late this summer.
Back to our Seniors introduction page