Bulgaria Wins by Forfeit as Israel Misses Chess Olympiad Match on Yom Kippur

Jerusalem, 22 September, 2026 (TPS-IL) -- Samarkand (BTA) – The national teams of Bulgaria achieved prestigious victories over Israel and Ukraine in the sixth round of the Chess Olympiad in the Uzbek city of Samarkand.

The women’s team, consisting of Nurgyul Salimova, Beloslava Krasteva, Gabriela Antova and Gergana Peycheva, won 4:0 without a game against Israel. The Israeli team did not compete because of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. The Israeli headquarters hoped that the match with Bulgaria would be moved to after sunset or the following day, but this request was rejected by the organizers, which led to the automatic loss.

The same fate befell the men’s team of Israel , which officially lost 0:4 to the Netherlands.

With the victory over Israel, Bulgaria now has 10 match points. Kazakhstan and China are the leaders in the standings with 12 match points each.

In the men’s event, the Bulgarian team also had reason to celebrate after defeating the strong Ukrainian team 2.5:1.5.

Riga-born Arkady Naidich was the hero for the Bulgarian team with his victory with the black pieces on the first board over Igor Kovalenko. Before that, the two teams had exchanged one win and one draw. On the fourth board, Radoslav Dimitrov won with the white pieces against Roman Dekhtyarov, on the third Martin Petrov lost to Anton Korobov, and on the second Momchil Petkov ended in a draw with world chess legend Vasil Ivanchuk.

After the victory over Ukraine, the Bulgarian team collected 10 match points. The leader with the maximum 12 match points is the hosts from Uzbekistan, who prevailed in a head-to-head clash for the first position with 2.5:1.5 points over the defending champion team of India. In second and third place are China and Armenia with 11 match points each.

The seventh round of matches games are scheduled for Wednesday.