Chess Olympiad 2026 Team Tracker: Every Squad, Confirmed and Awaited

Six of the world's strongest federations have now named their Open squads — and the two biggest of all are still counting. Since our last update, Spain and Argentina have shown their hands, and both slipped a headline name onto the sheet: a 14th Olympiad for the evergreen Alexei Shirov, and a first playing appearance for the 12-year-old sensation Faustino Oro. That takes the Open's confirmed list to six — the United States, Uzbekistan, Germany, France, Spain and Argentina — while India and China, the two teams everyone is waiting on, have yet to publish a single name.

This page tracks all of it in one place, team by team, section by section — who is confirmed to the last board, who has shown a fragment, and who is still a pool of names waiting on a rating list. We update it as the announcements land.

One thing to set straight first, because it shapes everything below. FIDE has not yet published an official seeding for Samarkand — that arrives only after registration closes, near the end of August. So the order here is ours: teams are ranked by the combined strength of their four strongest players on the July 2026 FIDE list, which is the same measure FIDE will use when it seeds the event. Where a squad is confirmed, we name it. Where it isn't, we give the pool it will almost certainly come from, and the deadline we're waiting on. Around 201 teams are registered in the Open section as of this writing; this tracks the leading twenty in each.

On this page

• How to read the tracker
• Open section — the top twenty
• Women's section — the top twenty
• The shadow over the start list
• What we're still waiting on
• Sources

How to read the tracker

Each team carries one of three labels:

• Confirmed — the federation has officially named its squad. Boards may still be juggled, but the five names are set.
• Partial — some players are publicly locked in, the rest of the boards open.
• Awaiting — no official squad yet. We list the likely pool and the selection mechanism, and flag it as unconfirmed rather than guess a lineup.

Full player cards for every nation — flags, ratings, captains, and historical results — live on the Samarkand 2026 hub, which we keep in step with this tracker as squads firm up.

Open section — the top twenty

1. India — Awaiting

The defending double champions still haven't published names — the single most-watched gap on the board. The AICF selects on a rating average across the May, June and July FIDE lists; that window has now closed, so the squad is expected imminently. Likely pool:

• Gukesh Dommaraju
• Arjun Erigaisi
• R Praggnanandhaa
• Vidit Gujrathi
• Pentala Harikrishna
• Captain: Srinath Narayanan

Which four boards, and in what order, is the open question. We laid out the data case for and against India defending in The Champion's Curse.

2. United States — Confirmed

• Fabiano Caruana
• Wesley So
• Levon Aronian
• Hans Niemann (Olympiad debut)
• Awonder Liang (Olympiad debut)
• Captain: IM John Donaldson · Trainer: GM Grigory Oparin

Hikaru Nakamura is absent again by choice, and Leinier Domínguez was left out despite outrating two of the players picked ahead of him — a selection built on recent activity over raw rating. We told that story, and its 1930s echo, in America's Samarkand squad and the ghost of a golden age.

3. Uzbekistan — Confirmed

• Nodirbek Abdusattorov
• Javokhir Sindarov
• Nodirbek Yakubboev
• Shamsiddin Vokhidov
• Mukhiddin Madaminov

The hosts moved first, back in May — the young core that took gold in Chennai, now on home soil, with two players inside the world's top six on the July list. Sindarov carries an unusual subplot: two months after the Olympiad, he plays Gukesh for the world title. As host, Uzbekistan fields three teams in the section; this is the one that can medal.

4. China — Awaiting

No official roster yet, but the pool is deep and the selection criteria are public — five players per section, four regulars plus a reserve, with an automatic place for the national-championship winner. Likely core:

• Ding Liren
• Wei Yi
• Yu Yangyi

Ding, Yu and Ju Wenjun carried China's first team at the SCO team event in April. An internal deadline of 30 June has already passed without a public list.

5. Azerbaijan — Awaiting

A perennial top-ten seed. Likely pool:

• Teimour Radjabov
• Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
• Nijat Abasov
• Aydin Suleymanli

No official announcement yet.

6. Armenia — Awaiting

The 2006 and 2008 Open champions — still the last team to defend the title. Likely core:

• Gabriel Sargissian
• Haik Martirosyan

Squad not yet named.

7. Germany — Confirmed

• Vincent Keymer (world no. 6 on the July list)
• Matthias Blübaum
• Frederik Svane
• Alexander Donchenko
• Dmitrij Kollars

Announced on the schedule the federation always uses, roughly three months out. The side finished seventh in Budapest and has quietly become one of Europe's strongest.

8. France — Confirmed

• Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (board one)
• (Alireza Firouzja pointedly left out for a fifth straight year)

Locked in back in May. We covered the squad, the century-long medal drought behind it, and the Firouzja standoff in A Century Without a Medal.

9. Netherlands — Awaiting

Likely top three:

• Anish Giri (world no. 7)
• Jorden van Foreest
• Max Warmerdam

No official squad yet.

10. Poland — Awaiting

Seeded 11th in the Open in Budapest. Likely pool:

• Jan-Krzysztof Duda
• Radosław Wojtaszek
• Kacper Piorun
• Mateusz Bartel

The 2026 squad has not been published.

11. Spain — Confirmed

• Daniil Yuffa
• David Antón
• Maksim Chigaev
• Jaime Santos
• Alexei Shirov (his 14th Olympiad)

The most human story of the selection season: Shirov, bound for a fourteenth Olympiad, was the name that turned heads. We traced his three-decade arc across the OlympChess database when Spain announced.

12. Hungary — Partial

Publicly named certainties:

• Richárd Rapport
• Péter Lékó
• Benjámin Gledura
• (two boards still open)

As former hosts and a consistent top-ten side, Hungary's final shape is worth watching.

13. Vietnam — Awaiting

• Lê Quang Liêm (world no. 20 on the July list)

The clear leader; the rest of the squad depends on domestic selection. Not yet announced.

14. Ukraine — Awaiting

Vasyl Ivanchuk remains the emotional and often the sporting anchor, with a younger group behind him. As with the women's side, the war's disruption of Ukrainian chess is a factor no rating list fully captures. Squad not named.

15. England — Awaiting

Built around Michael Adams and a rising younger group. England is one of the five federations formally challenging the reinstatement of Russian and Belarusian teams (see below). No official squad yet.

16. Serbia — Awaiting

The quiet climber of recent Olympiads. Our Open preview flagged Serbia as the team to watch just outside the medals if their ascent has one more step in it. Squad not yet published.

17. Argentina — Confirmed

• Faustino Oro (Olympiad debut)
• Diego Flores
• Sandro Mareco
• Fernando Peralta
• Federico Pérez Ponsa

Named back in March, and the headline is Oro — the teenage IM and one of the most-discussed young talents in the game, finally playing rather than travelling with the coaching staff.

18. Norway — Awaiting

The whole section hinges on one question it always does: will Magnus Carlsen play? Norway's selection runs on an activity-weighted rating average, but no official squad — and no confirmation on Carlsen — has been published for 2026. Everything about Norway's ceiling depends on the answer.

19. Iran — Awaiting

Likely leaders:

• Parham Maghsoodloo
• Bardiya Daneshvar

A young, aggressive group. No official roster yet.

20. Czechia — Awaiting

Likely anchors:

• Thai Dai Van Nguyen
• David Navara

A solid top-ten European outsider. Squad not yet named.

Women's section — the top twenty

The Women's field behaves differently from the Open: one country, India, has pulled clear on paper, and the medal fight below it is tighter and more volatile. We made the full data case in Who Will Win the Women's Olympiad. As in the Open, the order below is our ranking by July-list strength, not an official seeding.

1. India — Awaiting

The defending champions and clear favourites. Likely pool:

• Koneru Humpy
• Harika Dronavalli
• Divya Deshmukh
• Vantika Agrawal
• Tania Sachdev
• Vaishali Rameshbabu — availability uncertain

Vaishali won the 2026 Women's Candidates, which earns her a World Championship match against Ju Wenjun; whether she plays in Samarkand depends on when that match is scheduled, which FIDE has not confirmed. If the match falls outside the Olympiad window, India's team gets even stronger. Squad not yet named.

2. China — Awaiting

• Ju Wenjun (world champion — confirmed in China's SCO team)
• Lei Tingjie
• Zhu Jiner
• Tan Zhongyi

Potentially the strongest women's squad on raw rating in the field. The full Olympiad roster has not been officially published.

3. Kazakhstan — Awaiting

Silver medallists in Budapest and no longer overachievers:

• Bibisara Assaubayeva — 2nd at the 2026 Candidates, won Norway Chess Women in June, career-high rating

Around her the squad is young and improving. Not yet announced.

4. United States — Confirmed

• Carissa Yip
• Alice Lee
• Irina Krush
• Rose Atwell (Olympiad debut)
• Tatev Abrahamyan (seventh Olympiad)
• Captain: GM Melikset Khachiyan · Trainer: GM Le Quang Liem

Yip, Lee and Krush return from the bronze-medal Budapest side.

5. Georgia — Awaiting

The most decorated women's chess nation in history. Likely core:

• Nana Dzagnidze
• Nino Batsiashvili
• Lela Javakhishvili

Perennial medal contenders; squad not yet published.

6. Ukraine — Awaiting

Gold medallists in Chennai 2022, 11th in Budapest.

• Anna Muzychuk — still world-class individually (played the 2026 Candidates; drew all nine classical games at Norway Chess Women)

Team depth has thinned under the war's disruption. No official squad.

7. Armenia — Awaiting

• Elina Danielian

A steady top-ten side. Not yet named.

8. Poland — Awaiting

Silver medallists as recently as 2016. Likely names:

• Oliwia Kiołbasa (individual board gold, Chennai 2022)
• Alina Kashlinskaya

Squad not yet published.

9. Spain — Confirmed

• Sabrina Vega (European vice-champion, leads the squad)

Announced alongside the open team by the Spanish federation.

10. Bulgaria — Awaiting

• Nurgyul Salimova (2023 World Cup finalist)

One of the brightest talents in European women's chess. Not yet announced.

11. Azerbaijan — Awaiting

Likely leaders:

• Gunay Mammadzada
• Ulviyya Fataliyeva

Squad not named.

12. France — Awaiting

A rising group anchored by returning talents; no official squad yet, though the open team is set.

13. Hungary — Awaiting

The former hosts field a solid top-ten side; squad not yet published.

14. Germany — Confirmed (partial)

• Elisabeth Pähtz (returning after maternity leave)

Confirmed alongside the open team; Pähtz is the anchor around whom the rest is built.

The chasing pack

Below the top fourteen, the women's field tightens fast — a single strong board can move a team five places. In the cluster, none with a published Samarkand squad:

• Mongolia
• Vietnam
• Uzbekistan (hosts — three teams, hoping the home crowd lifts them into the top ten for the first time)
• Netherlands
• Serbia

(We track the Women's field to a firm top fourteen plus this cluster, because below that the rating gaps between teams are smaller than the uncertainty in who actually plays. As squads firm up, this list will lengthen.)

The shadow over the start list

One question hangs over both sections, bigger than any single squad, and honesty requires flagging it carefully rather than pretending it is settled.

In December 2025, FIDE's General Assembly voted to lift restrictions on Russian and Belarusian teams — a decision that five federations (Ukraine, England, Norway, Estonia and Germany) are challenging at the Court of Arbitration for Sport on procedural grounds. That case was heard in mid-June and, at the time of writing, remains undecided. Running alongside it, after a separate CAS ruling, FIDE in June recognised the Chess Federation of Russia as suspended for three years or until it complies — yet the same FIDE Council held that teams of Russian citizens may still be eligible for team events, a position several Nordic and Baltic federations have publicly criticised as inconsistent with FIDE's own statutes. Whether, and under what flag, any Russian or Belarusian team appears in Samarkand was not resolved as this was written. We are not going to present a contested, unresolved process as a done deal — but it is the single most consequential open question hanging over the event.

What we're still waiting on

Three things will fill most of the gaps above, and all of them land soon:

• India and China's open squads — expected imminently now that the July FIDE list, which both selection processes lean on, has closed.
• FIDE's official seeding — published after registration closes, near the end of August. That will replace our provisional ranking with the real start numbers.
• The Women's World Championship dates — the domino that decides whether Vaishali plays for India in Samarkand.

We update this page as each lands. The Samarkand 2026 hub carries the full player cards and everything else we publish on the 46th.

Sources

Confirmed squads: US Chess Federation and ChessBase (US teams, June 2026); the Spanish Chess Federation via its official channels (Spain, July 2026); ChessBase and federation announcements (Germany, France); Argentine federation coverage (Argentina, March 2026); Uzbekistan Chess Federation (hosts, May 2026); public statements by the Hungarian team captain (partial). China's confirmed names (Ding Liren, Yu Yangyi, Ju Wenjun) are drawn from China's first team at the 2026 SCO team championship and the published national selection criteria.

Ratings and world rankings: FIDE July 2026 rating list (fide.com) and ChessBase's July 2026 rating report. Pools and selection mechanisms for teams not yet announced are drawn from each federation's published criteria and recent national-team practice, and are flagged as unconfirmed throughout.

The CAS and Russian/Belarusian eligibility situation is drawn from FIDE Council communications and federation statements through mid-2026; it is explicitly unresolved and hedged as such.

Compiled 19 July 2026. This tracker is updated as federations announce and as FIDE publishes its official seeding.