GM Vahap Şanal and Team Türkiye emerged victorious at the 2026 edition of the NATO Chess Championship.
The seven-round Swiss tournament, held at the Baltic Beach Hotel & SPA in Jūrmala, Latvia, from 11 to 17 October, brought together 148 military chess players representing 18 NATO member nations.
The top seed and only GM in the field, Şanal confirmed his status as the pre-tournament favourite and cruised to the title, winning all seven of his games.
Fifth seed IM Laura Unuk of Slovenia, who, due to the quirks of the pairings, did not face the champion, finished second on 6/7, and became the best woman in the competition. A group of six players tied for third place with 5.5/7, with FM Robert Stein of Germany claiming bronze thanks to a superior Buchholz tiebreak score.
Türkiye won the team competition with 23.5 points (calculated from the sum of the four best scores by players representing a particular country), while Germany finished second with 20 points. Sweden and Latvia shared third place with 19 points each, with Sweden edging out the host nation on tiebreaks.
The event also featured a nine-round blitz tournament, which was won by IM Mark Timmermans of the Netherlands with 7.5/9. Timmermans secured the title in a very close race with Stein and FM Efe Mert Kılıç of Türkiye. All three players scored the same number of points, but Timmermans claimed first place, with Stein and Kılıç finishing second and third, respectively, due to inferior Buchholz scores.
Official website: https://www.natochess.com/2026/index.html