Lithuania for the Open team, Italy for the women in the penultimate round. Round ten of the Samarkand Olympiad takes place today, 26 September, at 12:00 in Serbia (CEST), or 15:00 in Samarkand. Only the final, eleventh round will then remain, starting tomorrow at 08:00 Serbian time. Official schedule
Both Serbian teams make changes: Bojan Maksimović returns and Velimir Ivić rests in the Open. In the Women’s section, Teodora Injac rests, Alina Bivol moves to board one and Jovana Srdanović returns to the line-up.
All confirmed pairings appear below in board order, White first, with tournament ratings and each Serbian player’s colour. Every “Open game” link leads directly to the individual Lichess board. The broadcasts are ready; moves will appear as play progresses.
Open: Lithuania - Serbia, match 10
- Titas Stremavičius (2554) - Alexey Sarana (2666). Alexey Sarana plays Black. Open game: Alexey Sarana
- Aleksandar Inđić (2598) - Tomas Laurušas (2536). Aleksandar Inđić plays White. Open game: Aleksandar Inđić
- Pijus Stremavičius (2362) - Alexandr Predke (2598). Alexandr Predke plays Black. Open game: Alexandr Predke
- Bojan Maksimović (2534) - Gleb Pidluznij (2410). Bojan Maksimović plays White. Open game: Bojan Maksimović
Sarana and Predke have Black, Inđić and Maksimović White.
Broadcast group containing Lithuania - Serbia · Official pairings and colours
Women: Italy - Serbia, match 14
- Marina Brunello (2308) - Alina Bivol (2345). Alina Bivol plays Black. Open game: Alina Bivol
- Elif Mehmed (2316) - Olga Zimina (2305). Elif Mehmed plays White. Open game: Elif Mehmed
- Tea Gueci (2134) - Jovana Srdanović (2298). Jovana Srdanović plays Black. Open game: Jovana Srdanović
- Sofia Pogorelskikh (2244) - Giulia Sala (2088). Sofia Pogorelskikh plays White. Open game: Sofia Pogorelskikh
Bivol and Srdanović have Black, Mehmed and Pogorelskikh White. Elif moves to board two, while Sofia stays on board four.
Broadcast group containing Italy - Serbia · Official pairings and colours
Lithuania: outperforming its starting rank
After nine rounds, Serbia is 20th and Lithuania 18th, both on 13 match points. Lithuania started as the 37th seed, making its current position noteworthy. Serbia nevertheless outrates its opponents on all four boards today. Standings after nine rounds
Grandmasters Titas Stremavičius and Tomas Laurušas lead the Lithuanian line-up, followed by international masters Pijus Stremavičius and Gleb Pidluznij. Grandmaster Paulius Pultinevičius rests today. The captain is Eduardas Rozentalis. Lithuanian squad
Lithuania comes off a 2½:1½ win over Israel, without losing a game. Pijus Stremavičius scored the only decisive result, beating grandmaster Yahli Sokolovsky. He faces Predke today: the 236-point rating gap favours the Serbian player, but yesterday’s result is a reminder not to underestimate his opponent. Round-nine results
Sarana and Inđić supplied the wins in yesterday’s 3:1 victory over Switzerland. Another team win would take Serbia to 15 match points before the final round.
Italy: experienced top boards and a chance to bounce back
Serbia’s women are 23rd on 12 match points, while Italy is 38th on the same total. Serbia has a rating advantage on every board, but the margins on the top two are small: 37 points for Bivol and just 11 for Mehmed. The larger gaps are on boards three and four. Women’s standings after nine rounds
International masters Marina Brunello and Olga Zimina head the Italian team. They are joined by woman international master Tea Gueci and woman FIDE master Giulia Sala, who replaces Kamilla Rubinshtein. Italy’s captain is Mihail Marin, and the team started as the 33rd seed. Italian squad
Italy beat Uzbekistan’s third team 2½:1½ yesterday. Brunello and Zimina won on the top two boards, Gueci drew and Rubinshtein lost. Serbia looks to return to team wins after its 1½:2½ defeat to France. Sofia Pogorelskikh has won three games in a row and has White again today. Round-nine results
A win over Italy would take Serbia to 14 match points before the finale. Yesterday’s results and links to all eight games are in our round-nine report.