The Last-Day Win: Madaminov Beats Dehtiarov as Uzbekistan Win the Samarkand Olympiad

Black to move. White's rook on d3 is attacked by the black king. It is guarded only by the white king. Can you find the move that wins it?

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Position after 55.Kd4, with Black to move. The black king on c2 attacks the white rook on d3. Only the white king on d4 guards it.

Analyze this position in the full game

This position comes from the last round of the 46th Chess Olympiad, on the day Uzbekistan won the gold. You will see the answer at the end. First, let us see how Black got here.

Roman Dehtiarov 0-1 Mukhiddin Madaminov 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad, Samarkand 2026 · Open Section, Round 11 · 27 September 2026 White: Roman Dehtiarov, Ukraine (2508) · Black: Mukhiddin Madaminov, Uzbekistan (2611)

The last match

Uzbekistan went into the last round on 18 match points, one ahead of India. A team gets two match points for winning a match and one for a draw. The host country played Ukraine.

Three of the four games were drawn. Nodirbek Abdusattorov drew with Igor Kovalenko, Javokhir Sindarov drew with Vasyl Ivanchuk, and Nodirbek Yakubboev drew with Ihor Samunenkov. That left the fourth board, and Madaminov won it. His win gave Uzbekistan the match 2.5-1.5.

Uzbekistan finished with 20 match points out of 22. They won ten matches and lost one, to Germany in Round 8. India drew its last match and Germany won its last match, so both finished level on 18, two points behind.

This article follows the whole game in two parts: how Black won a pawn in the middlegame, and how he turned one extra pawn into a win in a rook endgame. A rook endgame is the stage of the game where each side has a rook and some pawns left, and almost nothing else. Rook endgames come up very often, and they are famous for being hard to win.

The opening: Black never castled

The game opened as a Ruy Lopez, where White plays 3.Bb5 to attack the knight on c6.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.d3 b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 7.c3 d6 8.Bg5 h6 9.Bh4 g5 10.Bg3 Bb6

On move 8 the white bishop went to g5. From there it pinned the knight on f6 to the black queen on d8. A pin means that if the knight moves, the piece behind it can be captured. Black chased the bishop away by pushing two pawns, first to h6 and then to g5.

Those pawn moves had a cost. Castling on the kingside would now put the black king behind pawns that had already moved forward. Madaminov never castled in this game. His king stayed on e8 until the queens were gone.

11.a4 Rb8 12.Nbd2 Ne7 13.axb5 axb5 14.d4 Ng6 15.dxe5 dxe5 16.h4 Ng4 17.hxg5 Nf4 18.Bxf4 exf4

White pushed the h-pawn to attack the pawn on g5, and 17.hxg5 won it. Black let the pawn go and brought both knights forward instead. After 18...exf4, White was a pawn ahead, but our Stockfish 17.1 check at depth 20 rates the game as level. The white pawn on g5 was hard to keep, because the black pawn on h6 was still attacking it.

Move 19: the pawn goes back

19.Nd4 Bxd4 20.cxd4 Qxd4

Our engine marks 19.Nd4 as the first real slip of the game. It preferred 19.Qc2. After the trades on d4, Black's queen took the d4 pawn and landed in the middle of the board.

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Position after 20...Qxd4, with White to move. The black queen on d4 attacks the pawns on b2, e4 and f2 and the knight on d2.

Analyze this position in the full game

From d4 the queen attacks four white targets: the pawns on b2, e4 and f2, and the knight on d2. A queen in the center of the board can reach both sides at once.

21.Qe2 hxg5 22.Rxh8+ Qxh8

Then the h6 pawn took on g5. Now Black was the one with an extra pawn, and the rooks on the h-file came off.

Move 24: a queen trade that wins a pawn

23.O-O-O Qd4 24.Nf3 Qxf2 25.Qxf2 Nxf2

White castled on the queenside and then attacked the black queen with 24.Nf3. Black did not retreat. The queen took the pawn on f2, even though the white queen guarded it. After 25.Qxf2 Nxf2 the queens were gone, and the black knight on f2 was attacking two things at once.

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Position after 25...Nxf2, with White to move. The black knight on f2 attacks the rook on d1 and the pawn on e4.

Analyze this position in the full game

The knight hit the rook on d1 and the pawn on e4. White had to save the rook, so the pawn fell.

26.Rd2 Nxe4

Now Black had five pawns and White had two. That is three extra pawns.

Three extra pawns become one

Three pawns ahead sounds like an easy win. Our engine did not see it that way. It rated Black's edge as much smaller than three pawns, because White could win some of them back.

27.Re2 f5 28.Nxg5 Bb7 29.Bc2 Kd7 30.Nxe4 fxe4 31.Bxe4 Bxe4 32.Rxe4 Rf8

White's knight took the pawn on g5. Then the knights were traded on e4, White's bishop took the pawn on e4, and after the bishops were traded too, White's rook took back on e4.

One extra pawn

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Position after 32...Rf8, with White to move. Black has a rook and three pawns. White has a rook and two pawns.

Analyze this position in the full game

Count the pawns. Black has three: on b5, c7 and f4. White has two: on b2 and g2. Black is one pawn ahead.

One pawn is often not enough in a rook endgame. The defending rook can check the king again and again, and many of these positions end in a draw. Our own Stockfish 17.1 check at depth 20 says Black is better here, but not yet winning. Madaminov still had a lot of work to do.

Step one: bring the king to the middle

Look at what both players did next.

33.b4 Kd6 34.Kd2 Kd5 35.Kd3 c6

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Position after 35...c6, with White to move. The black king has walked from d7 to d5, into the middle of the board.

Analyze this position in the full game

The black king walked from d7 to d6 to d5. In an endgame the king is no longer in danger, so it becomes a fighting piece. From d5 it helps its pawns and it gets in the way of the white rook.

Our engine did not like 33.b4. It rated Black's advantage about twice as big after that move. A pawn cannot move backwards. On b4 the pawn had left its safe square, and 17 moves later Black's rook took it.

Step two: make the rook active

Now Black had a choice. Keep every pawn, or let one go to make the rook more active? An active rook is one that attacks, checks and cuts off the enemy king, instead of just guarding.

36.Re7 Rg8 37.Rd7+ Ke5 38.Re7+ Kd6 39.Rf7 Rg4 40.Rf6+ Ke5 41.Rxc6 Rg3+ 42.Ke2 Rxg2+

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Position after 42...Rxg2+, with White to move. White has taken the c6 pawn and Black has taken the g2 pawn. The black rook gives check from g2.

Analyze this position in the full game

White took the pawn on c6. Black took the pawn on g2 and gave check at the same time. Black is still one pawn ahead. But look at the f4 pawn now. With the g2 pawn gone, no white pawn can ever stop it. That is called a passed pawn, and a passed pawn is a big worry for the defender.

Step three: trade down to rook and pawn against rook

43.Kf3 Rg3+ 44.Kf2 Rd3 45.Rb6 Rd5 46.Kf3 Kd4 47.Rc6 Re5 48.Kxf4 Re4+ 49.Kf3 Kd3 50.Rc5 Rxb4

White's king took the f4 pawn. Black gave a check with 48...Re4+, which pushed the white king back, and then Black's rook took the pawn on b4.

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Position after 50...Rxb4, with White to move. Black has a rook and a pawn on b5. White has only a rook.

Analyze this position in the full game

Now it is rook and pawn against rook. Some of these endings are draws. This one is not. An endgame tablebase is a computer list that knows the perfect result of every position with seven pieces or fewer. The Lichess tablebase says every White move here loses. The black king is two steps from its pawn. The white king, on f3, is four steps away.

The answer

51.Rd5+ Kc4 52.Ke4 Rb1 53.Rd4+ Kc3 54.Rd3+ Kc2 55.Kd4

Now back to the puzzle from the start. The white rook on d3 is attacked by the black king. Only the white king guards it.

The answer is 55...Rb4+.

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Position after 55...Rb4+, White to move. White's king is in check and has four legal moves: c5, d5, e5 and e3.

Analyze this position in the full game

This is a check, so the white king must move. It has four squares: c5, d5, e5 and e3. On c5, d5 or e5 it no longer guards the rook, and the black king takes it on d3. On e3 it still guards the rook, but then 56...Rb3 pins the white rook to its king. A pin means the piece cannot move off the line without leaving its king in check. The only way White can avoid losing the rook for nothing is to trade it with 57.Rxb3 Kxb3, and that pawn ending is lost too. The tablebase confirms it.

Dehtiarov resigned. Uzbekistan had won the Olympiad.

What to remember

• Loose pawns come back. Black was three pawns ahead after move 26 and only one ahead after move 32.
• One extra pawn is a start, not a win. Madaminov needed 23 more moves after 32...Rf8 to finish the job.
• Walk your king to the middle once the queens are gone.
• An active rook is worth more than a pawn. Black let the c6 pawn go and got a passed pawn and a checking rook in return.
• Look for checks that move the king away from a piece it guards. That is how 55...Rb4+ won the rook.

Uzbekistan won the Olympiad in Chennai in 2022. This time they won it at home, and the last point came from their fourth board.