Two rounds in, both Indian teams are still unbeaten, and both are about to find out what that record is actually worth at the Chess Olympiad 2026 Round 3 in Samarkand. Round 3 brings a genuine step up in class for both squads, after two rounds spent working past opponents rated well below them.
Round 3 of the 46th Chess Olympiad begins on September 18 at 15:00 local time in Samarkand. India's men carry 4 match points from two wins, most recently a 2.5-1.5 result against Indonesia that was far closer than the scoreline suggested. India's women, the top seed in their section, arrive with their own perfect start intact. Both now face opponents built from established, well organized chess federations rather than plucky underdogs.
Open Section: India vs Italy
This is the sternest test India's Open team has faced so far. Italy fields four titled grandmasters across every board, a squad captained by Michele Godena and built around genuine European chess depth rather than a single standout name. Unlike Thailand and Indonesia in the first two rounds, there is no obvious ratings mismatch here to lean on.
The board order:
Board 1: Praggnanandhaa R (India) vs Lorenzo Lodici (Italy). Praggnanandhaa returned to the lineup in round 2 with a hard fought draw against Indonesia's Megaranto, and this is a clear step up in difficulty against an Italian GM who will not be there simply to make up the numbers.
Board 2: Arjun Erigaisi (India) vs Luca Moroni Jr (Italy). After his round 1 loss to Thailand's Prin Laohawirapap, this is exactly the kind of game Erigaisi will want to use to settle back into the tournament, against an opponent rated over 200 points below him.
Board 3: Nihal Sarin (India) vs Francesco Sonis (Italy). Nihal is India's only player with two results to be genuinely happy with so far, having won in round 1 and ground through a rollercoaster win in round 2. Another GM level test awaits here.
Board 4: Gukesh Dommaraju (India) vs Sabino Brunello (Italy). The reigning World Champion has been rock solid without being spectacular, a round 1 win followed by a round 2 draw against a well prepared Maroczy Bind. Brunello gives him a veteran Italian GM to work past here.
Women's Section: India vs Greece
India's women, top seeded in their event, face a Greek side that should not be underestimated. Greece's board one, Stavroula Tsolakidou, was named Player of the Tournament at the last Olympiad in Budapest, the same event where India completed their historic double gold. There is a real storyline here beyond just the round 3 pairing.
The board order:
Board 1: Koneru Humpy (India) vs Stavroula Tsolakidou (Greece). India's most experienced player against the player who was arguably the single most in-form performer of the last Olympiad. This is comfortably the standout individual matchup of the day across both sections.
Board 2: Divya Deshmukh (India) vs Anastasia Avramidou (Greece). Deshmukh remains one of the most dangerous attacking players in the world right now, and faces a considerably lower rated opponent here.
Board 3: Vantika Agrawal (India) vs Ekaterini Pavlidou (Greece). A significant ratings gap in India's favor on this board.
Board 4: Savitha Shri B (India) vs Antonia Christodoulaki (Greece). India's board four continues to rotate through the squad's depth, another clear ratings edge on paper.
Why the Pairings Have Toughened Up
This is simply how a Swiss system tournament this size works once the perfect scores start thinning out. Round 1 and round 2 pushed India against teams ranked well below them in the initial seeding, because that is how the winners' bracket sorts itself out in a field of over 200 teams. By round 3, the pool of teams still on a perfect or near perfect record has narrowed enough that genuinely strong federations like Italy and Greece are now the opponents on the other side of the board.
For India's men, Italy represents the first real litmus test of the tournament. Every previous opponent carried at least one significant ratings gap somewhere in the lineup. Here, all four boards are contested by legitimate grandmasters, and a repeat of round 2's stubborn 2.5-1.5 scrap against Indonesia would not be a surprising outcome.
What to Watch For
The Humpy vs Tsolakidou pairing deserves special attention. Tsolakidou's individual form at the last Olympiad was good enough to win the tournament's top individual honor outright, and facing her on board one is a genuinely different challenge from anything India's women have faced in the first two rounds. How Humpy, the most experienced player in India's squad, handles that test will say a lot about the team's readiness for the tougher rounds still to come.
On the men's side, Erigaisi's game is worth watching closely for a different reason. After his round 1 defeat, he has not played since, and this is his first chance to answer that result directly. A clean win against Moroni would go a long way toward settling any lingering questions about his form heading into the tournament's harder rounds.
What Happens Next
Round 3 begins on September 18 at 15:00 local time in Samarkand. Elsewhere among the leading contenders, hosts Uzbekistan face Austria, the United States take on Denmark, and China meet Bulgaria, all pairings that reflect the same tightening of the field now shaping India's matches. With eight rounds still to play after this one, round 3 marks the point where the Olympiad genuinely starts to separate the contenders from the rest of the draw.
