At the first-ever FIDE World University Team Chess Championship-2026 in Almaty, the second game day concluded, and the first playoff participants have been announced. Four teams have secured their spots in the quarterfinals ahead of schedule, reports infohub.kz.
The Ural State Mining University team (Russia) is performing flawlessly, winning all four matches with a clean score of 4:0. In the latest round, grandmasters Arseny Nesterov, Rudik Makaryan, Sergey Lobanov, and international master Leya Garifullina defeated the Australians.
Alongside the Russians from Group A, the Americans from Harvard have advanced to the playoffs. Harvard University's team, after beating the Chinese, trails the Yekaterinburg squad by just half a point. In the final round of the group stage, these teams will compete for first place in the quartet. Harvard's lineup is less formidable: international master Akira Nakada, women's international master Ellen Wong, as well as Derek Jin and Davin Yin, who hold no titles.
In Group B, students from Saint Louis (USA) have secured their playoff berth early. The international team, featuring grandmasters Subramaniam Bharat (India), Viktor Gazik (Slovakia), Nikoloz Kacharava (Georgia), and women's grandmaster Talia Cervantes-Landeiro (USA), routed the South Africans on the second day.
Dallas became the third US team to advance from the group stage. The University of Texas team includes students from around the world: grandmasters Aditya Samant, Chatterjee Koustav (both from India), Yair Parkhov (Israel), and women's grandmaster Maili-Jade Ouellet (Canada).
The Kazakh National University of Sports team is one step away from a quarterfinal berth. In the fourth round, the Astana team won all games against Oxford. Victories were achieved by international masters Satbek Akhmedinov, Arystan Isanzhulov, Meruert Kamalidenova, and Alisher Mazhkenov, who currently holds no title.
Second in Group D are the championship hosts. The KazNU team took revenge on the Indonesians in the fourth round after a crushing defeat in the third. Victories were secured by Sultan Amanzhol and Asel Lesbekova from neighboring Kyrgyzstan.
The AlmaU team has not lost hope of reaching the quarterfinals, trailing the Greeks by just 0.5 points after a draw with Cambridge. In the second half of the match against the British, grandmaster Zhangir Bizhigitov and Dias Alimbetov secured wins.
Tomorrow, after the 5th and 6th rounds, the full quarterfinal lineup will be determined. Round-robin matches will determine the top two teams from each group. Then the playoffs: quarterfinals, semifinals, third-place match, and final.
The games are played on four boards. Each team must have at least one man and at least one woman. The time control is 45 minutes plus 30 seconds per move starting from the first move.
The tournament is organized by FIDE together with the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kazakhstan Chess Federation, and the Akimat of Almaty. General partners are the Freedom group of companies and the Shapagat corporate fund. The total prize fund is €50,000. The champions will receive €25,000, the runners-up €15,000, and the third-place team will split €10,000.