Nihal Sarin and Koneru Humpy secure individual gold medals at European Chess Club Cup 2026; Bodhana Sivanandan achieves youngest female IM record.

Key facts

• Nihal Sarin and Koneru Humpy won individual gold medals at the European Chess Club Cup 2026, which was held in Montenegro.
• Sarin, representing Novy Bor Chess Club, scored five points from six games in the open competition, recording four wins and two draws.
• Koneru Humpy claimed the individual gold medal on Board 2, scoring 4.5 points from six games in the seven-round women's tournament.
• Humpy helped Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo win the women's team championship at the European Chess Club Cup 2026.
• Pentala Harikrishna of Novy Bor secured the individual silver medal on Board 3 with five points from six games, while Karthikeyan Murali of Team Electroprivreda won the individual bronze medal on Board 2 with 4.5 points from six games.
• Novy Bor Chess Club finished second in the team competition, narrowly missing the title behind Bayegan Pendik Sports Club.
• Bodhana Sivanandan became the youngest female International Master (IM) at the age of 11, breaking a 38-year-old record set by Judit Polgar.
• Sivanandan competed for She Plays to Win Lionesses in the European Women's Chess Club Cup 2026, scoring 5.5 points from 7 games on Board 1.
• Her path to the IM title included defeating Belarusian International Master Olga Badelka in the third round, raising her rating to 2399.4.
• Sivanandan's 32-move victory over Sweden's Woman International Master Viktoria Johansson helped her join the list of the 10 youngest IMs of all time.