22nd International Solving Contest (ISC)
25th January 2026
Results & Statistics
ISC 2026 will be remembered as a historic edition of the contest. With 952 participants, this year set a new all-time record in the history of ISC.
The event was held in 59 tournaments across 26 countries, bringing together 162 solvers in Category 1, 346 in Category 2, and 443 in Category 3. Such participation clearly demonstrates the continued growth of solving worldwide and the increasing engagement of new and young solvers.
It is inspiring to see our community expanding year by year, uniting experienced masters and beginners alike in the same global event.
Thank you to all Local Controllers for your dedication, precision and cooperation. Congratulations to the winners and prize-winners in all three categories for their excellent performances.
Problems CAT1 – CAT2 – CAT3 | Solutions CAT1 – CAT2 – CAT3
Full presentation of the RESULTS in PDF
*Note regarding the result of Nika Riabenko
Following the post-event verification process, the result of Nika Riabenko was temporarily withheld and the case was referred to the Appeals Commission. After reviewing the available materials, the Appeals Commission decided that the result should be excluded from the official ranking and recorded as unofficial, and the final standings reflect this decision.
Romania Timisoara ISC 2026
Romania Bucharest ISC 2026
Croatia Zagreb ISC 2026
India Mumbai ISC 2026
Russia Tula ISC 2026
Japan Tokyo ISC 2026
India Bangalore ISC 2026
Brasil Rio de Janeiro ISC 2026
Serbia Belgrade ISC 2026
Latvia Riga ISC 2026
India Delhi ISC 2026
India Chennai ISC 2026
Netherlands-Schiedam ISC 2026
Moldova Kishinev ISC 2026
Lithuania Vilnius ISC 2026
India Kolkata ISC 2026
Russia Moscow ISC 2026
Russia St-Petersburg ISC 2026
Slovakia Bratislava ISC 2026
Slovenia Ljubljana ISC 2026
Poland Cracow ISC 2026
Nepal Kathmandu2 ISC 2026
Greece Patras ISC 2026
GER-Münster ISC 2026
ISC 2026 Winners
Category 1
| Rank | Name | From | Points | Time |
| Overall | ||||
| 1 | Taras Rudenko | UKR | 47.25 | 240 |
| 2 | Joost Michielsen | NED | 45.5 | 240 |
| 3 | Roland Baier | SUI | 44 | 240 |
| Women | ||||
| 1 | Audrey Kueh | GBR | 31.5 | 240 |
| 2 | Avika Panwar | IND | 13.5 | 240 |
| 3 | Denisa-Andreea Bucur | ROU | 13 | 210 |
| Juniors | ||||
| 1 | Taras Rudenko | UKR | 47.25 | 240 |
| 2 | Ilija Serafimovic | SRB | 41 | 240 |
| 3 | Chinguun Sumiya | MGL | 39 | 240 |
| Seniors | ||||
| 1 | Roland Baier | SUI | 44 | 240 |
| 2 | Ofer Comay | ISR | 41.75 | 236 |
| 3 | Marek Kolcak | SVK | 36 | 239 |
Category 2
| Rank | Name | From | Points | Time |
| Overall | ||||
| 1 | Alexander Nosak | SVK | 55.5 | 221 |
| 2 | Ashwin Sairam | IND | 54.5 | 211 |
| 3 | Renars Muzis | LAT | 54 | 238 |
| Women | ||||
| 1 | Zuzana Kovacova | SVK | 47 | 240 |
| 2 | Swati Mohota | IND | 42.5 | 240 |
| 3 | Anna Lickova, | CZE | 37 | 240 |
| Juniors | ||||
| 1 | Alexander Nosak | SVK | 55.5 | 221 |
| 2 | Ashwin Sairam | IND | 54.5 | 211 |
| 3 | Renars Muzis | LAT | 54 | 238 |
| Seniors | ||||
| 1 | Zoran Sibinovic | SRB | 50 | 214 |
| 2 | Nikola Nikolic | SRB | 44 | 239 |
| 3 | Torsten David | GER | 43.75 | 216 |
Category 3
| Rank | Name | From | Points | Time |
| Overall | ||||
| 1 | Nikolai Shevyakov | FID | 30 | 26 |
| 2 | Vlad Stan | ROU | 30 | 51 |
| 3 | Vasilisa Smirnyagina | FID | 30 | 57 |
| Girls | ||||
| 1 | Vasilisa Smirnyagina | FID | 30 | 57 |
| 2 | Ekaterina Vedernikova | FID | 29 | 66 |
| 3 | Alisa Bubnova | FID | 29 | 70 |
ISC 2026 Statistics
| Category | Category 1 | Category 2 | Category 3 | Total | |
| Juniors (<23) | 41 | 195 | 444 | 680 | |
| Seniors (>59) | 47 | 50 | 0 | 97 | |
| Women | 10 | 63 | 94 | 167 | |
| all | 163 | 346 | 443 | 952 | |
| Oldest solver | Eriks Priedneks (LAT) | age 87 | |||
| Youngest solver | Ramneek Saluja Singh (IND) | age 5 | |||
| Title | Total participants ISC 2026 | Category 1 | Category 2 | Category 3 |
| GM | 14 | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| IM | 12 | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| FM | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 2301-2400 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 2201-2300 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| 2101-2200 | 9 | 8 | 0 | 1 |
| 2001-2100 | 11 | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| 1901-2000 | 25 | 18 | 6 | 1 |
| 1801-1900 | 29 | 14 | 15 | 0 |
| 1701-1800 | 34 | 11 | 23 | 0 |
| 1601-1700 | 65 | 11 | 46 | 8 |
| 1501-1600 | 30 | 1 | 26 | 3 |
| 1401-1500 | 11 | 2 | 4 | 5 |
| 1301-1400 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| – | 686 | 37 | 223 | 425 |
| Total | 952 | 163 | 346 | 443 |
Tournament location
| Country | Tournament | Category 1 | Category 2 | Category 3 | Total ISC 2025 |
| Brasil | 1 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 7 |
| Croatia | 1 | 10 | 0 | 4 | 14 |
| Czech republic | 1 | 4 | 9 | 1 | 14 |
| Finland | 1 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 13 |
| France | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 7 |
| Great Britain | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Germany | 2 | 9 | 8 | 0 | 17 |
| Greece | 2 | 4 | 12 | 3 | 19 |
| India | 11 | 28 | 185 | 170 | 383 |
| Israel | 1 | 6 | 10 | 1 | 17 |
| Japan | 1 | 16 | 8 | 4 | 28 |
| Latvia | 1 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 11 |
| Lithuania | 1 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| Moldova | 1 | 5 | 2 | 23 | 30 |
| Mongolia | 1 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 10 |
| Nepal | 1 | 0 | 11 | 10 | 21 |
| Netherlands | 1 | 5 | 8 | 0 | 13 |
| Poland | 4 | 4 | 19 | 7 | 30 |
| Romania | 7 | 16 | 25 | 26 | 67 |
| Russia | 11 | 110 | 110 | ||
| Slovenia | 1 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| Serbia | 2 | 4 | 6 | 68 | 78 |
| Switzerland | 1 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 14 |
| Slovakia | 2 | 6 | 9 | 4 | 19 |
| Ukraine | 1 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 10 |
| Turkey | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| Total | 59 | 163 | 356 | 443 | 952 |
Representatives of countries in each location
| Country | Town | # solvers | Same country | Foreign country | Countries | Unofficial solvers |
| IND | Chennai | 185 | 184 | 1 | KOR | |
| SRB | Aradac | 67 | 67 | 13 | ||
| IND | Mumbai | 36 | 36 | |||
| IND | Indore | 34 | 34 | |||
| RUS | Arkhangelsk | 31 | 31 | |||
| MDA | Kishinev | 30 | 30 | |||
| JPN | Tokyo | 28 | 24 | 4 | HKG, IND, UKR, USA | 1 |
| IND | Bangalore | 27 | 27 | |||
| IND | Vasco da Gama | 27 | 27 | |||
| IND | Nashik | 22 | 22 | |||
| NEP | Kathmandu | 21 | 21 | 1 | ||
| ROU | Pitesti | 19 | 19 | |||
| ISR | Kiryat Ono | 17 | 17 | |||
| IND | Bhopal | 16 | 16 | 2 | ||
| IND | Udaipur | 16 | 16 | |||
| ROU | Bucharest | 15 | 15 | |||
| SUI | Bern | 14 | 9 | 3 | 2 FIDE, 2 GER, GRE | |
| RUS | Novy Urengoy | 14 | 14 | |||
| CZE | Prague | 14 | 14 | |||
| CRO | Zagreb | 14 | 14 | |||
| FIN | Helsinki | 13 | 12 | 1 | THA | |
| RUS | Yekaterinburg | 13 | 13 | |||
| GRE | Patra | 13 | 13 | |||
| NED | Schiedam | 13 | 12 | 1 | BEL | |
| SVK | Bratislava | 12 | 11 | 1 | UKR | |
| SRB | Belgrade | 11 | 10 | 1 | FIDE | |
| GER | Dresden | 11 | 10 | 1 | NEP | |
| LAT | Riga | 11 | 11 | |||
| ROU | Cugir | 10 | 10 | |||
| ROU | Drobeta Turnu Severin | 10 | 10 | |||
| IND | Kolkata | 10 | 10 | |||
| UKR | Poltava | 10 | 9 | 1 | UKR | 1 |
| RUS | Saint Petersburg | 10 | 10 | |||
| RUS | Tula | 10 | 10 | 1 | ||
| MGL | Ulaanbaatar | 10 | 10 | |||
| POL | Cracow | 9 | 8 | 1 | ISL | |
| POL | Warsaw | 9 | 9 | |||
| RUS | Nyandoma | 8 | 8 | |||
| RUS | Velsk | 8 | 8 | |||
| POL | Wroclaw | 8 | 7 | 1 | UKR | |
| FRA | Le Vesinet | 7 | 7 | |||
| SVK | Liptovsky Mikulas | 7 | 7 | |||
| BRA | Rio de Janeiro | 7 | 7 | |||
| GRE | Athens | 6 | 6 | |||
| IND | Delhi | 6 | 6 | |||
| SLO | Ljubljana | 6 | 6 | |||
| RUS | Moscow | 6 | 6 | |||
| GER | Munster | 6 | 6 | |||
| ROU | Timisoara | 6 | 6 | 1 | ||
| LTU | Vilnius | 6 | 6 | |||
| GBR | Sheffield | 5 | 5 | |||
| RUS | Ustyansky | 5 | 5 | |||
| ROU | Cluj-Napoca | 4 | 4 | |||
| POL | Gorzow Wielkopolski | 4 | 4 | |||
| IND | Gurugram | 4 | 4 | |||
| RUS | Severodvinsk | 4 | 4 | |||
| ROU | Iasi | 3 | 3 | |||
| TUR | Istanbul | 3 | 3 | |||
| RUS | Kotlas | 1 | 1 | |||
| Total | 16 | 20 |
Number of participants from each country
| No. | Participants country | Total participants ISC 2026 | Category 1 | Category 2 | Category 3 |
| 1 | IND | 383 | 29 | 185 | 169 |
| 2 | RUS | 113 | 2 | 1 | 110 |
| 3 | SRB | 77 | 3 | 6 | 68 |
| 4 | ROU | 67 | 16 | 25 | 26 |
| 5 | MDA | 30 | 5 | 2 | 23 |
| 6 | POL | 28 | 4 | 17 | 7 |
| 7 | JPN | 24 | 13 | 7 | 4 |
| 8 | NEP | 22 | 12 | 10 | |
| 9 | GRE | 20 | 4 | 13 | 3 |
| 10 | GER | 18 | 10 | 8 | |
| 11 | SVK | 18 | 6 | 8 | 4 |
| 12 | ISR | 17 | 6 | 10 | 1 |
| 13 | CRO | 14 | 10 | 4 | |
| 14 | CZE | 14 | 4 | 9 | 1 |
| 15 | UKR | 13 | 6 | 4 | 3 |
| 16 | FIN | 12 | 6 | 4 | 2 |
| 17 | NED | 12 | 4 | 8 | |
| 18 | LAT | 11 | 2 | 9 | |
| 19 | MGL | 10 | 6 | 4 | |
| 20 | SUI | 9 | 9 | ||
| 21 | BRA | 7 | 6 | 1 | |
| 22 | FRA | 7 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| 23 | LTU | 6 | 5 | 1 | |
| 24 | SLO | 6 | 4 | 2 | |
| 25 | GBR | 5 | 4 | 1 | |
| 26 | TUR | 3 | 1 | 2 | |
| 27 | BEL | 1 | 1 | ||
| 28 | HKG | 1 | 1 | ||
| 29 | ISL | 1 | 1 | ||
| 30 | KOR | 1 | 1 | ||
| 31 | THA | 1 | 1 | ||
| 32 | USA | 1 | 1 | ||
| Total | 952 | 163 | 346 | 443 |
Arvydas Mockus,
Central Controller of ISC 2026
