The Maldivian national women’s chess team has made sports history by winning the Gold Medal in Category E at the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
The premier global team event gathered over 1,800 players across more than 200 nations, featuring 189 teams in the women’s division and 206 in the open division. Competitors were categorized into five performance brackets from Category A through E based on seedings. While all nations played within a unified Swiss-system tournament format, sub-category standings were determined by performance among teams within each respective group.
Across 11 rounds of competition, the Maldivian women’s squad secured top honors in Category E after competing against 37 nations, including Egypt, Japan, Congo, Kosovo, Uruguay, and Honduras. Maldives finished the tournament with 11 match points and 21.5 board points, securing first place over Tanzania via tie-breaker criteria after finishing level on match points.
Captained by Aminath Sirufa, the gold medal team comprised WCM Nihaya Ahmed, Maryam Laisa Abdul Rasheed, Eena Abdulla Hassan, Aishath Aaliya Mohamed Shareef, and Aishath Noya Shahurudheen Shareef. Out standing individual performances during the event earned both Maryam Laisa Abdul Rasheed and Yena Abdulla Hassan the official Woman Candidate Master (WCM) title from FIDE.
In the open division, the Maldivian men’s team competed in Category D, represented by Mohamed Shuaau, Mohamed Hassan, Abdul Rahman Ali, Mohamed Rakin Faiyaz, and Ahmed Aboobakuru. The national men’s team previously achieved a category gold medal at the 2022 Chess Olympiad.
