GM Nihal Sarin could afford to take a draw in a won position against GM Wei Yi as GMs David Anton and Pentala Harikrishna gave Novy Bor Chess Club a 4-2 victory over second-seed Alkaloid. In the penultimate round, they'll face the only other team on a perfect score, SuperChess Romania, who swept aside SK K CERO INVEST Nitra 5.5-0.5, with the only draw conceded by GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov against GM Vasyl Ivanchuk. It's tight at the top, with three teams within a single point of the leaders.     

Meanwhile, CE Gambit Bonnevoie continues to lead the 2026 European Women's Chess Club Cup with a perfect score after beating second seed Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica 2.5-1.5. There were three wild draws, but IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya grabbed the crucial win against IM Teodora Injac. Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo bounced back to win 4-0 and is joined by Odlar Yurdu as the only teams within two points of the leaders. 

Round six is on Thursday, October 22, starting at 8 a.m. ET / 14:00 CEST / 5:30 p.m. IST.

Open: Anton, Harikrishna Win As Novy Bor Beats 2nd Seeds

The convincing win for fourth-seed Novy Bor over second-seed Alkaloid was by far the most significant result of round five, with favorites winning the other key matches.

That leaves two teams in the lead going into the penultimate round, but if they tie their head-to-head clash three teams are within a point and can catch them. 10 teams are another point back and still in the medal hunt. 

Open Standings After Round 5 (Top 12)

The key match of the round was also the longest and most intense, with Novy Bor, the European Club Cup champions in 2013, 2022, and 2024 pulling off an impressive win.

The most exciting game was perhaps Wei vs. Nihal, with the Chinese grandmaster, who had started with 4/4 in Budva, commenting: "I think today was a crazy game, because my opponent sacrificed a piece early in the opening and I think my position should be very good, but then maybe I missed some great chances to win."

I think today was a crazy game!

—Wei Yi

Nihal was following a game he'd won with Black against GM Gukesh Dommaraju in the Menorca Open Masters rapid event earlier this year. Wei at first seemed to make the same mistake as the world champion, then was close to winning, and then, as he confessed, he lost control in a situation where he made a move with two seconds on his clock: "In time trouble. I think my opponent played much better than me and even in the final position he has some chances to score. But maybe he saw his teammates and they had good positions, so he decided to go for the draw."

In fact, the final position, where a draw was agreed, is completely winning for Black.

If Nihal's choice was based on the team situation, however, it worked out perfectly. Anton won a pawn early on against GM Aravindh Chithambaram, then, instead of holding on to a small edge, gave up two pawns to trap White's king in the center of the board. It worked perfectly for most of the game, even if the decision to swap off queens briefly raised Alkaloid's hopes.

GM Velimir Ivic briefly had chances on bottom board, but they fizzled out, leaving GM Yu Yangyi as the last hope for Alkaloid. The Chinese star was, if anything, worse, but bravely tried to play for a win for his team—only to be punished by slipping to a 103-move loss to Harikrishna.

Novy Bor will now face SuperChess Romania, who put an end to the perfect run of 12th seed SK K CERO INVEST Nitra with a crushing 5.5-0.5 win. The fastest win of the match came for GM Alexey Sarana, who made it 5/5 with a dramatic finish. 68-year-old GM Lubomir Ftacnik played 33.Be5? with three minutes on his clock only to be hit by 33...Ne3!!.

Wins followed for GMs Jorden van Foreest, Haik Martirosyan, Bogdan-Daniel Deac, and Daniel Dardha, but on top board 57-year-old chess legend Ivanchuk had if anything the better of a solid draw against the world number-five, Abdusattorov. Ivanchuk has a 2686 performance rating so far in Budva.

The two stars who, like Abdusattorov, had lost in round four, GMs Anish Giri and Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, also drew in round five, but top seed Bayegan Pendik Chess Sports Club is only a point off the lead after wins on the bottom three boards saw the team beat Aix-en-Provence 4.5-1.5.

Elektroprivreda also stayed within a point of the leaders with a 4.5-1.5 win, but 16-year-old GM Vaclav Finek of SK Dunajska Streda demonstrated how fleeting success can be in chess by spectacularly beating GM Pranav Venkatesh, who had defeated Giri the day before.

It doesn't get easier for Pranav, who likely faces GM Arjun Erigaisi as his team takes on Alkaloid in round six. 

Women: Gambit Bonnevoie Still Perfect

Fourth-seed CE Gambit Bonnevoie has now beaten the top three seeds in the tournament after overcoming second-seed Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica in round five.

Bonnevoie has a perfect 10/10, with only two teams within two points—and as the Luxembourg-based side has already beaten Monte-Carlo, that means a clash with fifth-seed Odlar Yurdu in round six.

Women's Standings After Round 5 (Top 12)

The key match turned on a single win, but that hides the chaos on the remaining boards. 

IM Polina Shuvalova was completely busted out of the opening against GM Anna Ushenina, but managed to hold on and escape in a rook endgame, while on the next two boards all four players were, at some point, winning the game.

It was hard to argue that Bonnevoie didn't deserve the win, however, since Maltsevskaya scored a convincing win on the bottom board, when a tricky position for Injac collapsed.

Elsewhere, the favorites won, including Monte-Carlo hitting back with a 4-0 clean sweep of Velikova Chess Club, a result achieved despite some mishaps such as GM Elisabeth Paehtz dropping her queen against 1838-rated Ralitsa Ilieva. 

Once again, 11-year-old FM Bodhana Sivanandan deserves a mention, though this time for demonstrating a skill any top chess player needs—the ability to pull off a swindle! She explained, "I managed to win, but I feel like I was definitely slightly worse, if not just worse at one point." 

That was something of an understatement, since FM Ena Cvitan was winning brilliantly... until she wasn't!

Sivanandan is now up to 2409.6 and women's number-42.