The 2026 Chess Olympiad in Samarkand hit a dramatic and awkward low on Monday. Both the Israeli men's and women's teams simply didn't show up to their Round 6 boards. The result? Clean 4-0 forfeit defeats against the Netherlands and Bulgaria, respectively. It wasn't a lack of preparation; it was a total scheduling breakdown. The Dutch team reportedly arrived at the venue to find the Israeli players completely absent, leaving them with an automatic win that no one wanted to celebrate.
The core of the dispute is Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Israel's chief, Zvika Barkai, claims FIDE failed to honor a written agreement made six months ago. That agreement stipulated that Round 6 games on Yom Kippur would start at least two hours late or be moved to the designated rest day on September 22. But FIDE's position, as stated publicly, is that they merely contacted the opponents to see if they would agree to the delay. The Netherlands and Bulgaria both said no. And technically, under FIDE's current rules, they had the right to refuse.
Barkai is furious. In a sharp exchange with TimesofIndia.com, he didn't just complain about the delay—he accused FIDE of cowardice. He claims the governing body was "afraid of negative reactions, especially during the FIDE elections," and so they never actually built the accommodation into the official competition regulations. Instead, they left it up to the opposing teams' goodwill. "In practice, they did almost nothing, and we are extremely angry with them about this issue!!" Barkai said, his frustration clearly audible in the text. The failure, he argues, wasn't a lack of intent, but a failure of process.
The contrast with Sunday's Round 5 matches makes the Monday incident even starker. For Round 5, falling on the eve of Yom Kippur, Singapore (men) and Colombia (women) agreed to move their games earlier so Israel could finish before the holiday began. That worked. But on Monday, the Netherlands and Bulgaria's refusal forced Israel into a corner where playing meant violating their religious observance, and not playing meant taking a 4-0 loss that will directly hit their Elo ratings and final Olympiad standings. Barkai called the Singapore and Colombian teams' actions "exemplary" and "sporting," while labeling the refusal by the Dutch and Bulgarian teams as "unsporting."
The immediate aftermath is already sour. A 4-0 forfeit is a massive ranking hit for any team, and Israel is now considering its next steps after the Olympiad concludes. FIDE is caught in an awkward spot, having to defend a rules-based decision that looks, to many observers, like a bureaucratic failure of basic human consideration. The chess world is watching to see if FIDE will try to mitigate the damage to Israel's standings, but for now, the 4-0 scores stand.