3rd FIDE Chess Olympiad for People with Disabilities 2026

The FIDE Chess Olympiad for People with Disabilities is a triennial team championship for players represented by the three disability-chess international associations. The 2026 edition is the third running of the unified Olympiad and is hosted in Samarkand from 10 through 18 September — the week immediately before the main FIDE Olympiad opens in the same city.

The History

The unified Disabilities Olympiad was first held in Belgrade in 2022 as a coordinated event combining the previously separate IBCA (International Braille Chess Association), ICCD (International Committee of Chess for the Deaf), and IPCA (International Physically Disabled Chess Association) team championships. The second edition followed in Belgrade in 2023, with the format adjusted toward a fuller integration of the three associations’ competitions; the 2026 Samarkand edition continues that pattern.

The 2026 Edition

The event runs as a nine-round team Swiss across all classifications, with separate medals for each association’s competitions and an overall combined ranking. Around 300 players representing 50+ national federations are expected; the prize fund of $100,000 is distributed across the three association sections and the combined ranking. The Silk Road Samarkand Congress Centre — the same venue that hosts the main Olympiad two weeks later — provides full-accessibility infrastructure.

The Classifications

Each of the three constituent associations administers its own title cycle. IBCA serves blind and visually-impaired players, who play with adapted boards and clocks designed for tactile use. ICCD serves deaf players, whose tournament conventions adjust for the absence of auditory signals (round-end announcements, draw-offer protocols, and time-trouble warnings). IPCA serves physically disabled players across a wide range of impairments; its medical-classification system is the most complex of the three.

Why Pairing with the Main Olympiad Matters

Holding the Disabilities Olympiad in the same city in the week before the main FIDE Olympiad is a recent and deliberate scheduling choice. It reduces the travel and infrastructure burden on participating federations (many send the same officials to both events), simplifies media coverage of disability chess by placing it inside the broader Olympiad news cycle, and gives players access to the same purpose-built tournament infrastructure that the main event uses.