GM Mukhiddin Madaminov won the 2026 UzChess Cup Masters and $20,000 on June 15 after defeating GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov 2-0 in blitz tiebreaks. Both players finished the round-robin with 5.5/9, with three grandmasters a half-point behind: Ian Nepomniachtchi, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, and Arjun Erigaisi.
GM Mahammad Muradli dominated the Challengers with a final score of 7.5/9, two points ahead of the field. The result qualifies him for next year’s Masters. Fifteen-year-old IM Khumoyun Begmuratov won the Futures with 7/9 to advance to next year’s Challengers.
Arjun was the only player to win in round nine, though Madaminov was a clear pawn up against GM Hans Niemann and would have won the tournament outright if he had converted.
Round 9 Results
| Board | # | Rating | White | Result | Black | Rating _1 | # |
| 1 | 5 | 2717 | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | ½ – ½ | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | 2733 | 10 |
| 2 | 6 | 2708 | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | ½ – ½ | Yakubboev, Nodirbek | 2689 | 4 |
| 3 | 7 | 2777 | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | ½ – ½ | Vokhidov, Shamsiddin | 2637 | 3 |
| 4 | 8 | 2761 | Erigaisi, Arjun | 1 – 0 | Theodorou, Nikolas | 2634 | 2 |
| 5 | 9 | 2742 | Niemann, Hans Moke | ½ – ½ | Madaminov, Mukhiddin | 2586 | 1 |
After missing his opportunity against Niemann, Madaminov had a second chance in blitz tiebreaks against Vokhidov, who finished on the same score. Note that Madaminov only joined as a late replacement for GM Javokhir Sindarov! Now he is the defending champion.
Final Standings
| # | Name | Rating | Fed | Points |
| 1 | Madaminov, Mukhiddin | 2586 | 5.5 | |
| 2 | Vokhidov, Shamsiddin | 2637 | 5.5 | |
| 3 | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | 2733 | 5 | |
| 4 | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | 2717 | 5 | |
| 5 | Erigaisi, Arjun | 2761 | 5 | |
| 6 | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | 2777 | 4.5 | |
| 7 | Niemann, Hans Moke | 2742 | 4 | |
| 8 | Yakubboev, Nodirbek | 2689 | 4 | |
| 9 | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | 2708 | 3.5 | |
| 10 | Theodorou, Nikolas | 2634 | 3 |
You can see the prize distribution below. The total prize fund, for all the sections, was $121,500.
When we left off with our mid-tournament recap after round five, Vokhidov had just taken sole lead with three straight wins. Madaminov caught up in round six, however, with a win against GM Vidit Gujrathi. Madaminov and Vokhidov would co-lead the event through to the end.
Madaminov’s win in round six featured a brilliant series of sacrifices, which he had foreseen when he played the move 23.g3, kicking the knight. Once it moved, Madaminov sacrificed a piece, which could not be accepted, and then the exchange, which was. “I didn’t really have any other choice!” than to sacrifice, he told Chess.com. “Vidit was in time trouble, I had 30 minutes more, that’s why I was more confident in myself.”
I didn’t really have any other choice!
—Mukhiddin Madaminov
It was a tournament to forget for Vidit, who finished second-to-last with 3.5 points (a half-point ahead of GM Nikolas Theodorou). If he doesn’t play another classical tournament this month, and his live rating of 2696 sticks on the next published list, it will be the first time since 2019 that Vidit will be rated under 2700.
Vokhidov, coming off the winning streak in round five, went into consolidation mode and made four draws to end the tournament. He made a solid draw in the Berlin with GM Nodirbek Yakubboev, another solid draw in the English against Mamedyarov, had some minor chances with White against Vidit, and finally employed the Petrov Defense to hold GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the last round.
There was a key moment from that last game that could have had a great impact on the tournament standings. For precisely one move, Abdusattorov had the chance to gain a significant advantage by trading queens, with surprisingly great winning chances despite the two sets of doubled pawns. Abdusattorov thought for a while but instead opted for 16.Rf3?, and the game ended in a draw.
It was also a tournament for Abdusattorov to forget, but that’s really just because of round eight. In an equal position where his opponent attacked his rook, the Uzbek number-one touched his king. Realizing he was going to lose his rook for nothing, he resigned without making a move. It truly is one of the wildest blunders you will ever see from a top-10 player.
You can see a clip of that heartbreaking moment in the video below, as well as an interview with Theodorou. The Greek grandmaster explained that his opponent, focused on the calculations of a future position in his mind, must have thought he already moved his rook, adding, “I’ve never seen something like this in my own games.”
I’ve never seen something like this in my own games
—Nikolas Theodorou
After the win over Vidit, Madaminov’s remaining three games were draws, but not solid ones at all. He was worse in a wild game against Abdusattorov, and then had winning (but chaotic) positions against both Arjun and Niemann. The draw against Arjun ended in this interesting endgame, where White is up an exchange and a pawn but cannot make progress in the final position.
Against Niemann, Madaminov won a pawn out of the opening but couldn’t convert it. The time scramble featured wild complications where even Niemann could have briefly won as well.
With 5.5 points each, the Uzbek leaders battled for the title in a two-game match with a 3+2 time control, and Madaminov won both of them. In the first game, Madaminov was worse out of the opening but won when his opponent walked into a one-move pin.
He then secured the tournament with a win with Black in game two, solving all his problems in the Italian and eventually outplaying his opponent. You can watch just that game in the video, timestamped below.
Arjun, Mamedyarov, and Nepomniachtchi all scored critical wins in the second half of the tournament to end a half-point short of the winner.
Arjun earned his second victory of the tournament in the last round, against Theodorou, and pulled it off with a defensive exchange sacrifice.Â
Mamedyarov, on the other hand, secured two wins in the second half of his event to come back from two losses. His win against Theodorou in round six featured a curious piece sacrifice to interrupt the connection between White’s queen and king.
Nepomniachtchi scored wins against Arjun in round six and Niemann in round eight. The win against Arjun featured a brilliant rook sacrifice, one of the best moves of the tournament.
“If I held the game with Nepo, then maybe I would have had some chances for tiebreaks, but it is what it is,” said Arjun. He’s set to lose 3.5 rating points, while Nepomniachtchi stays at the same rating and Mamedyarov gains two points.
Though Niemann and Nepomniachtchi didn’t shake hands at the start of the tournament, they did before their encounter in round eight. The Russian GM went on to win by “sacrificing” his knight temporarily, picking up the white pawns like ripe apples in the moves that followed.
“I was just happy to use my 2021 preparation finally—it was for Magnus,” Nepomniachtchi also said about the opening to this game.
Niemann loses 11 points and Yakubboev four, both ending the event on four points.
Over in the Challengers, Muradli put up an incredible 2849 performance with six wins and three draws. It wasn’t even close.
Begmuratov, the winner of the futures, may be an IM, but his rating is already well over 2500. We should expect to see him in the Challengers next year.
That wraps up our coverage for the third edition of the UzChess Cup. We hope you enjoyed the games and look forward to the next one!
How to rewatch?
The 2026 UzChess Cup takes place from June 7 to 15 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The most talented Uzbek players face the world’s elite on home soil at one of Uzbekistan’s strongest events. The Masters tournament is a 10-player round-robin with a classical time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves, with 30 more minutes added after, plus a 30-second increment starting on move one. The total prize fund is $121,500 for all sections: the Masters, Challengers, Futures, and Open.
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