Serbia ends the Olympiad: 22nd in the Open, 21st in the Women’s section

Serbia finishes the Samarkand Olympiad 22nd in the Open and 21st in the Women’s section. In the final, eleventh round on 27 September, the Open team lost 1½:2½ to Azerbaijan, while the women beat Austria 2½:1½. Both Serbian teams finished on 15 match points, reached through different match records and separated within their respective standings by tie-breaks.

Wins by Elif Mehmed and Jovana Srdanović, together with Sofia Pogorelskikh’s draw, gave the women a successful final day. In the Open match, board three produced the only decisive game: Mahammad Muradli beat Alexandr Predke, with draws on the other three boards.

Open: Serbia - Azerbaijan 1½:2½

Games are listed in board order, White first. Each link opens the individual game directly on Lichess.

1. Alexey Sarana - Shakhriyar Mamedyarov: ½-½. View game on Lichess
2. Aydin Suleymanli - Aleksandar Inđić: ½-½. View game on Lichess
3. Alexandr Predke - Mahammad Muradli: 0-1. View game on Lichess
4. Eltaj Safarli - Bojan Maksimović: ½-½. View game on Lichess

Sarana drew with Mamedyarov, while Inđić and Maksimović drew with Black against Suleymanli and Safarli. Muradli’s win against Predke decided the match. Azerbaijan outrated Serbia on all four boards and finished fifth on 17 match points after this win. Velimir Ivić sat out the final round. Official board results

For Serbia, this was a missed final opportunity to finish high in the standings: a win would have guaranteed a top-nine place, but defeat dropped the team from 13th after ten rounds to 22nd overall. The final match record is seven wins, one draw and three losses, for 15 match points and 26 board points from 44 games.

Women: Serbia - Austria 2½:1½

1. Alina Bivol - Olga Badelka: 0-1. View game on Lichess
2. Jasmin-Denise Schloffer - Elif Mehmed: 0-1. View game on Lichess
3. Jovana Srdanović - Chiara Polterauer: 1-0. View game on Lichess
4. Emilia Deak-Sala - Sofia Pogorelskikh: ½-½. View game on Lichess

Elif Mehmed beat Jasmin-Denise Schloffer with Black, and Jovana Srdanović beat Chiara Polterauer with White. Their two wins, alongside Sofia’s draw, secured the match despite Alina Bivol’s loss to Olga Badelka on board one. Teodora Injac sat out today. Official board results

After four consecutive wins, Sofia finished with a draw, scoring 4½ points in the last five rounds. Serbia’s women climbed from 27th to 21st overall. Their final match record is six wins, three draws and two losses, for 15 match points and 27½ board points from 44 games.

Final standings: Open

Standings after round eleven on 27 September 2026. The extract shows the top five and places 18–25; omitted places are marked with an ellipsis. MP means match points (two for a win, one for a draw), SB is the first tie-break, Olympiad Sonneborn–Berger, and BP means total board points. Serbia is highlighted in both tables.

Complete final Open standings

Uzbekistan won gold with 20 match points. India and Germany both finished on 18; India took silver on the better tie-break, with bronze going to Germany.

Final standings: Women

The same selection and abbreviations apply: final standings on 27 September 2026, showing the top five and places 18–25.

Complete final Women’s standings

China won gold with 20 match points, Kazakhstan silver with 18, and India bronze with 17. Serbia finished immediately behind Ukraine: both scored 15 match points, but Ukraine’s SB was 319.5, against Serbia’s 318.5. The final win was therefore not enough to reach the top twenty.

Teams level on match points are separated first by SB, then by total board points, then by opponents’ match points with the prescribed exclusion. The number of games won alone does not determine the order. FIDE regulations, Appendix 2

Serbia’s individual scores

These are final tournament scores. The order follows the registered squad list; a reserve joins the four-player line-up when selected, so these numbers do not identify the board used in every game.

Official Open individual scores · Official Women’s individual scores

Inđić and Predke each scored 6½/10, the highest totals in the Open team. Elif Mehmed’s 7/10 was the highest total in the Women’s team, while Sofia Pogorelskikh’s 6½/8 gave her its best scoring percentage. Raw totals cannot tell the whole story: opponents, colours and each player’s role in the matches also matter.

After the last move

There is a sense of what might have been, because we had something to hope for right to the end. The Open team was one match win away from a guaranteed top-nine finish. Azerbaijan was a very tough opponent, with a rating advantage on all four boards, but the opportunity for a fine ending was there. That is why the final defeat hurts: we were cheering for one more win to round off the good moments of the preceding days and secure a place near the top.

The women gave us a win to finish on, with full points from Elif and Jovana and a draw from Sofia after four consecutive victories. We would have loved that final push to bring a few more places as well. Ukraine, in 20th place, had just one point more in the first tie-break, leaving that familiar feeling among supporters: so close, and such a pity.

The starting positions, 15th in the Open and 14th in the Women’s section, gave us reason to hope for higher finishes than 22nd and 21st. Samarkand also leaves us with wins we celebrated and games we will return to. Thank you to our players for those moments; we hope the next opportunity like this comes with a happier ending. Open starting list · Women’s starting list

Our Olympiad coverage will continue board by board, from the reserves to the top boards, featuring one Open player and one woman in each article. Separate specials will look at the winning teams and the most interesting games of the whole event. Today settles the results; a closer look at the games will follow.

For the previous day, see our round-ten report. This morning’s live-round special remains a record of our expectations during the final round.