Savitha Shri turns saviour as India women salvage Chess Olympiad bronze

China were the dominant side throughout. Even without Hou Yifan, Ju Wenjun and Lei Tingjie, the world Nos. 1, 3 and 4, the Chinese team did enough to reassert their dominance.

Savitha Shri escapes with a draw vs. Meri Arabidze to end the #ChessOlympiad with 9/10 — it may still be enough for India to grab bronze medals! https://t.co/HvXlV6QKNA pic.twitter.com/YDx4Y73Um2

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 27, 2026

They finished unbeaten on 20 match points ahead of Kazakhstan, who were also unbeaten on 18. India ended on 17 points, locked in a five-way tie with the United States, Poland, Armenia and Mongolia, but superior tiebreaks secured them third place.

Koneru Humpy, who was under the weather for the final five days, quietly did her job. While supremely reliable and solid on the top board, Humpy had struggled to convert draws into full points earlier in the tournament. Come the final day, however, she delivered a vital win over the tricky and experienced Nana Dzagnidze.

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When Kazakhstan were held to a draw by Poland, a faint window opened for India to push for silver. Yet silver quickly became an afterthought as India found themselves fighting simply to stay on the podium. Divya Deshmukh had lost, Vantika was locked in a drawn endgame, and Savitha was staring at defeat.

Just as she had done in her rearguard efforts against China and Kazakhstan, Savitha refused to give up, pulling off a swindle to change the team’s fortunes.

India captain Swayams Mishra was full of praise for the team’s saviour.

“Even Savitha might not have expected to do so impressively. Especially in scenarios where she was not winning, or was in a bad position or lost at times, she fought back and went on to save or win the game. That was remarkable. For her first Olympiad, she performed exceedingly well,” Mishra told The Indian Express.

The individual returns softened the sting of missing out on the title defence. Apart from Savitha’s gold on Board 5, Humpy bagged bronze on Board 1, as did Vantika on Board 4. Divya, despite her final-round loss, had delivered consistently throughout the tournament to secure a silver on Board 3.

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For a squad of this calibre, bronze is still a step down from the double-gold high of Budapest 2024, a reality Mishra acknowledged.

“Unfortunately, it was not our tournament. We had a few close matches,” Mishra said. “We had a good chance of winning against China yesterday. If we had converted that, things would look very different right now.”

The women’s bronze ensured India retained the prestigious Nona Gaprindashvili Trophy, awarded to the country with the best combined performance across the Open and Women’s sections.

This marks the third straight edition in which India have claimed the trophy, having won it on home turf in Chennai (2022), during their double-gold campaign in Budapest (2024), and now in Samarkand.

(With inputs from Amit Kamath)