Leo Team player Igor Samunenkov became the youngest European Chess Champion 2025/2026

Yesterday, 14 October, the European Team Chess Championship took place. It was held in Batumi, Georgia. Leo Team esports player Igor Samunenkov became the youngest European Chess Champion and won gold in the individual competition. The Ukrainian national team took first place in the open category for the second time in history.

The Ukrainian national chess team consisted of five athletes: Igor Samunenkov, Ruslan Ponomariov, Igor Kovalenko, Andriy Volokitin, and Anton Korobov. The latter two helped the team win its first gold medal at the 2021 European Championship.

The championship consisted of nine rounds. The Ukrainians lost only one of 16 games and won four victories in the first five matches. Despite the defeat to Azerbaijan in the eighth round, thanks to their defeat of Serbia in the final, Ukraine needed only two points to win. The team defeated England — one victory and three draws brought 2.5 points and the championship gold.

Igor Samunenkov is a 16-year-old chess grandmaster. He earned this title at the age of 14 and was considered the youngest grandmaster in the world at the time. He has been playing chess professionally since the age of 8. In October 2021, he won the Ukrainian Rapid Chess Championship. In December of the same year, he won the World Youth Chess Championship, defeating the world's youngest grandmaster, Abhimanyu Mishra. He also participated in the World Rapid and Blitz Championships, where he was the youngest player.

As Igor exclusively told UA.NEWS in an interview, he played with the most famous chess players: Magnus Carlsson and Huckesh Dommaraju. He also played with two former European champions in classical chess, Alexei Sarana and Alexander Injich, at the Grand Swiss tournament.

Since 2025, Igor has represented the Ukrainian esports organisation Leo Team. He plays in the top chess division, which is held online. He streams and commentates on his tournaments on Twitch.