Indian Grandmasters Nihal Sarin and Koneru Humpy won individual gold medals on Board 2 at the 41st European Chess Club Cup and 30th Women Cup in Budva, Montenegro. The European Chess Union event was held from 17 to 23 October 2026. Both Indians finished unbeaten to top their boards.
What Is the European Chess Club Cup?
The European Chess Club Cup is an annual team tournament for club teams from Europe. The European Chess Union (ECU) organises it under the rules of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), the world body that governs chess and issues ratings and titles such as Grandmaster.
The event has two separate tournaments that run together. The Open section is the 41st edition in 2026, while the Women section is the 30th edition. In the Open section, each club fields six players per match with up to two reserves. In the Women section, each club fields four players per match with one reserve.
Both sections use a 7-round Swiss system. In this format, teams with similar scores are paired against each other in each round, instead of playing every other team. A win gives two match points and a draw gives one match point. Final ranks are decided first by match points and then by tiebreak scores based on board points and strength of opponents.
The 2026 edition was played at Hotel Slovenska Plaza in Budva, a coastal town in Montenegro, from 17 to 23 October 2026. The time control was 90 minutes for the first 40 moves plus 30 minutes to finish the game, with 30 seconds added per move from the start. The total prize fund was 40,000 euros, with 26,000 euros for the Open and 14,000 euros for the Women event, including separate prizes for the best player on each board.
Participation touched a record high in 2026. A total of 130 clubs took part, with 108 teams in the Open and 22 teams in the Women section. The top Open teams also earned qualification spots for the new European Super League planned for 2027.
The Cup has a long history. The first club event was held in Belgrade in 1956. It became a regular competition in 1976 and an annual event in 1992. The Women Cup was added in 1996. The ECU itself was formed at the FIDE Congress in Graz in 1985 and now has 54 national member federations.
Nihal Sarin Wins Individual Gold in the Open Section
Nihal Sarin played for Novy Bor Chess Club of the Czech Republic in the Open section. Novy Bor is a three-time former champion of this event and entered Budva as one of the favourites.
Sarin played on Board 2 and scored 5 points from 6 games. He recorded four wins and two draws and finished the tournament without a loss. His wins included victories over Dutch Grandmaster Jorden van Foreest, fellow Indian Grandmaster Karthikeyan Murali and Maxim Rodshtein. He also drew with Chinese star Wei Yi after choosing a safe result that helped his club win that match.
His consistent score gave him the individual gold medal for Board 2. Wei Yi took silver and Karthikeyan Murali took bronze on the same board. A board medal rewards the best score on a fixed board number, so it is different from the team medal.
Sarin produced a performance rating of 2859, which measures the playing strength shown during an event. He gained about 11 rating points and reached a classical FIDE rating of 2720. The November 2026 rating list placed him at World No. 19, his first entry into the world top 20 and a career best.
In the final round, Sarin beat Murali as Novy Bor defeated Montenegrin club Elektroprivreda by 4.5 to 1.5. The result kept Novy Bor level on 13 match points with the leaders, but the Czech club finished second on tiebreaks.
Koneru Humpy Wins Individual Gold in the Women Section
Koneru Humpy played for Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo of Monaco, the top seed and defending champion in the Women section. She played on Board 2 and scored 4.5 points from 6 games across the seven rounds.
Her score gave her the individual gold medal for Board 2. Leya Garifullina took silver and Klaudia Kulon took bronze on the same board. Humpy remained steady through the event, and her win over Nia Donghvani in the final round proved important for her final board ranking.
The same result helped her club defend its title. Monte-Carlo beat the Georgian club Davit Jojua Chess Club by 4 to 0 in the last round. The club finished with 12 match points from six wins and one loss, level with CE Gambit Bonnevoie of Luxembourg, and kept the title on better tiebreaks. This was the ninth European Women Club Cup title for Monte-Carlo.
Monte-Carlo collected three individual golds in total. Aleksandra Goryachkina won gold on Board 1 and Elisabeth Paehtz won gold on Board 4, along with Humpy on Board 2.
Humpy has played for Monte-Carlo since 2007. After the win, she said the association had always been special and described the victory as a team effort. She gained two rating points in Budva and stayed at World No. 9 with a rating of 2520, remaining the top ranked Indian woman.
Which Clubs Won the Team Gold Medals in Budva?
The team titles were decided in the seventh and final round, with both sections ending in a tie on match points.
In the Open section, Bayegan Pendik Sports Chess Club of Turkey won the 41st European Chess Club Cup. The club beat defending champion SuperChess of Romania by 3.5 to 2.5 in the direct final round clash. Anish Giri beat Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Amin Tabatabaei beat Haik Martirosyan, while Jorden van Foreest scored the lone win for SuperChess.
Novy Bor beat Elektroprivreda in the same round. Both Bayegan Pendik and Novy Bor finished with 13 match points from six wins and one draw. Bayegan Pendik won the title on tiebreaks with a score of 261.5 against 253.0 for Novy Bor. Rishon LeZion A of Israel took bronze with 12 match points.
In the Women section, Monte-Carlo and CE Gambit Bonnevoie both finished with 12 match points. Gambit Bonnevoie beat Crvena Zvezda of Serbia by 2.5 to 1.5 in the last round, but Monte-Carlo won on tiebreaks by 159.5 to 145.0. Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica of Serbia took bronze after beating Odlar Yurdu of Azerbaijan by 3.5 to 0.5, with both clubs on 10 points.
| Section | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open | Bayegan Pendik Sports Club, Turkey, 13 points | Novy Bor Chess Club, Czech Republic, 13 points | Rishon LeZion A, Israel, 12 points |
| Women | Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo, Monaco, 12 points | CE Gambit Bonnevoie, Luxembourg, 12 points | Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia, 10 points |
Indian players featured strongly beyond the two golds. Pentala Harikrishna of Novy Bor scored 5 from 6 and won silver on Board 3. Karthikeyan Murali won bronze on Board 2 despite losing the last round game to Sarin. Arjun Erigaisi finished fourth on Board 1.
Koneru Humpy and Nihal Sarin Are From Which States?
Koneru Humpy is from Andhra Pradesh and Nihal Sarin is from Kerala. Both play chess for India. Chess is a board game in which two players use strategy to checkmate the opponent king, and FIDE titles such as Grandmaster mark the highest level of skill.
Humpy was born on 31 March 1987 in Gudivada in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh. She learned chess from her father Koneru Ashok. She became Asia’s youngest Woman International Master in 1999 and India’s youngest Woman Grandmaster in 2001.
In 2002, at 15 years, 1 month and 27 days, she became a full Grandmaster. She was then the youngest female Grandmaster in history and the first Indian woman to earn the title. That record was later broken only by Hou Yifan of China. In October 2007, Humpy crossed 2600 Elo points with a rating of 2606, becoming only the second woman after Judit Polgar to do so. Her peak rating is 2623.
Humpy is a two time Women World Rapid Chess Champion, with titles in Moscow in 2019 and New York in 2024. Rapid chess uses shorter time limits than classical chess. She was runner up in the Women World Championship and won silver at the Women Candidates 2024 and the Women World Cup 2025. She has also won gold medals at the Chess Olympiad, the Asian Games and the Asian Championship. The Government of India gave her the Arjuna Award in 2004 and the Padma Shri in 2007.
Nihal Sarin was born on 13 July 2004 in Thrissur in Kerala. He learned chess at age six and won Kerala state titles in the under 7, under 9, under 11 and under 15 groups. He became an International Master in 2017.
In August 2018, at 14 years, 1 month and 1 day, he became India’s 53rd Grandmaster at the Abu Dhabi Masters. He was then among the youngest Grandmasters in history and among the youngest to cross 2600 Elo. His early titles include the World Under 10 Blitz Championship in 2013, the World Under 10 Championship in 2014 and the online World Under 18 title in 2020.
Nihal is known for strength in all formats, including classical, rapid and blitz. He won the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid and the Menorca Masters in 2026. After Budva, his classical rating rose to 2720, which placed him among players rated above 2700, often called super grandmasters.
Key Takeaways
- Nihal Sarin won individual gold on Board 2 in the Open section at Budva with 5 points from 6 games for Novy Bor Chess Club.
- Koneru Humpy won individual gold on Board 2 in the Women section with 4.5 points from 6 games for Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo.
- Bayegan Pendik of Turkey won the 41st European Chess Club Cup and Monte-Carlo of Monaco won the 30th Women Cup, both on tiebreaks after tying on match points.
- The 2026 event in Budva from 17 to 23 October set a record with 130 clubs, with 108 teams in the Open and 22 in the Women section.
- Humpy from Andhra Pradesh became a Grandmaster in 2002 at age 15, while Sarin from Kerala became India’s 53rd Grandmaster in 2018 at age 14.
