The 41st European Chess Club Cup and the 30th European Women’s Chess Club Cup, together called the European Club Cup 2026, closed in Budva, Montenegro on 23 October. It closed with a record 130 teams across both sections.
By the time the final round ended, the 11 year old Bodhana Sivanandan from England had broken a 38 year old record. Two players of Indian origin were among the European Club Cup 2026 gold medalists, winning individual golds on the same board number, in two separate sections of the same event.
Bodhana Sivanandan Becomes World’s Youngest Female International Master
Bodhana Sivanandan needed one more strong result to complete her International Master title. She got it on the very last day. In the final round, playing Board 1 for the English club She Plays To Win Lionesses A, she beat WIM Viktoria Johansson with the black pieces. That single win sealed her third and final IM norm. Across the event, she scored 5.5 points from 7 games, a rating performance of 2465, comfortably clear of the 2400 mark a norm needs.
At 11 years, 7 months and 16 days old, that made her the world’s youngest female International Master in chess, breaking the record Judit Polgar had held since 1988, when Polgar earned the same title at 12. Sivanandan is also the seventh youngest IM ever recorded, across either gender.
(Bodhana Sivanandan playing against Viktoria Johansson)
In this game against WIM Viktoria Johansson, Bodhana picked up a pawn early with 4…dxc4 in a Slav structure, the gambit she pointed to afterward. Johansson hit back on move 24, sacrificing a bishop and a knight on f7 to strip away Black’s rook, the exact exchange Sivanandan meant when she said she came out of it with two pieces for the rook. Two moves later, her bishop grabbed the h2 pawn with check. And by move 32 her queen landed on d3; Johansson had no defence left, and she resigned.
Gold for Nihal Sarin and Koneru Humpy, on Board 2
Nihal Sarin played Board 2 for Novy Bor Chess Club and finished on 5 points from 6 games, four wins and two draws, enough for individual gold on his board. His rating performance of 2859 took him to a career best, world No. 18 on the live list. His wins along the way included Jorden van Foreest and Maxim Rodshtein, and in the final round, fellow Indian GM Karthikeyan Murali, a game in which Sarin played a rare fifth move in the French Defence, castled queenside, and built what one report called an unstoppable attack.
Koneru Humpy played Board 2 for Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo in the women’s section and won individual gold there too, the same board number as Sarin, in a completely separate section of the same tournament. Her defining win came against WFM Nia Donghvani, who had under a minute left on the clock when she missed a tactical trick that collapsed her position soon after. Her club finished the event on 12 points, six wins and one loss, enough to take the women’s team title outright.
Other Indians left their mark too. Pentala Harikrishna won individual silver on Board 3, also for Novy Bor, scoring 5 points from 6 games with his best win coming against Yu Yangyi. Karthikeyan Murali still picked up individual bronze on Board 2 for Team Electroprivreda, despite the loss to Sarin that decided gold on that board.
The Final Standings, and Where the Title Has Travelled
In the open section, Bayegan Pendik Chess Sports Club was the European Club Cup 2026 winner, taking the title with 13 points from a possible 14, finishing ahead of Novy Bor, Sarin and Harikrishna’s club, on tiebreaks after both sides finished level on points. Rishon LeZion A took bronze. In the women’s section, Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo, Humpy’s club, won with 12 points, edging out CE Gambit Bonnevoie on tiebreaks, with Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica taking bronze.
The European Club Cup title rarely stays with one club for long. SuperChess Romania and Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo were champions in 2025. Novy Bor and TAJFUN-SK Ljubljana won in 2024. Magnus Carlsen‘s own club, Offerspill, won it in 2023. Novy Bor also won in 2022, alongside ASVOe Pamhagen.
Against that backdrop, the margins in 2026 tell their own story. Bayegan Pendik and Novy Bor both finished on 13 points in the open section. Bayegan Pendik took gold only on tiebreak, 261.5 to Novy Bor’s lower score. Monte-Carlo’s win was closer still, 159.5 to 145 on tiebreak against CE Gambit Bonnevoie. This is Monte-Carlo’s second women’s title in two years. Novy Bor, despite carrying two individual medallists in Sarin and Harikrishna, still finished as the open section’s runner-up.
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