The 46th Chess Olympiad in Samarkand has come to a close, offering San Marino’s chess community some encouraging signs. A comparison with the 2024 Budapest edition reveals a mixed picture for the two national teams, but above all highlights two standout individual performances: those of Nicola D’Amico and Elena Krasnova.
In the Open event, San Marino finished 184th, with 7 match points and 15.5 individual points. The team was made up of Mirko Leardini, the reigning San Marino champion, FIDE Masters Danilo Volpinari, Ezio Righi and Enrico Grassi, and Nicola D’Amico. The non-playing captain was Italian Master and FIDE Trainer Augusto Caruso, on his third stint with the San Marino team. Two years ago in Budapest, the team had finished 158th with 8 match points and 16 individual points. The comparison confirms a tougher Olympiad in terms of team result, even though overall performance at the board remained close to that of two years earlier.
The real standout, however, was Nicola D’Amico. Playing on third board, he earned 5.5 points from 9 games, with four wins and three draws, for a performance rating of 1919 – well above his starting rating of 1819. The leap in form also earned him a 28-point Elo increase and the international title of FIDE Candidate Master (CM).
In the women’s event, the comparison with the Hungarian campaign tells a particularly meaningful story: San Marino collected 15.5 individual points in Samarkand, up from 13 in Budapest 2024. The team was made up of Elena Krasnova, WCM Mariane Biordi, Giulia Lazzarini, Cristina Giannini and Dorina Capicchioni. The non-playing captain was Candidate Master and FIDE Trainer Giulia Tonel, in her second spell at the helm of the San Marino women’s team. The final placement was 178th. The star of the competition was Elena Krasnova, competing in her first Olympiad as reigning San Marino champion: she scored 6 points from 10 games, with five wins and two draws, for a performance rating of 1687 and the award of the Woman Candidate Master (WCM) FIDE title. After a difficult start, Elena found her rhythm in the second half of the tournament, stringing together a series of important victories and finishing with the best individual haul on the women’s team – narrowly missing out on another milestone, the Woman FIDE Master (WFM) title, for which just one more point would have been needed.
“The outcome of Samarkand goes beyond the final standings,” says the San Marino Chess Federation. “D’Amico and Krasnova delivered the most significant individual performances, but the results are the fruit of a group that tackled a world-class competition with commitment and cohesion. It was an experience that allowed the entire San Marino delegation to measure itself against chess traditions of great prestige, adding another important building block to the growth of the movement.”
