The 46th World Chess Olympiad will start on September 15 in the Silk Road International Tourist Center in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. This event will be the first in the history of the tournament, which has been held since 1927, to take place in Central Asia.
It is expected that 396 teams will participate in the current Olympiad, potentially setting a new record for the tournament. The previous record was set in 2024 in Budapest, where 380 teams participated.
As the host country, Uzbekistan will send three teams to each competition. In the open tournament, the country's second team received the 32nd seeding, allowing a group of young Uzbek chess players to participate in the home Olympiad.
Uzbekistan's main national team is led by Javohir Sindarov, whose rating is 2777. The team also includes Nodirbek Abdusattorov (2762), Nodirbek Yakubbaev, Shamsiddin Vohidov, and Mukhiddin Madaminov. The team captain is former FIDE World Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov.
Four participants from the team that won gold at the 2022 Olympiad in Chennai were reselected. After winning in India, Uzbekistan took third place at the Olympiad in Budapest, where Shamsiddin Vohidov won individual gold on the fourth board.