The “Șahul UNește” tournament was played on 25 October in Independence Square, Ungheni, with 380 players, according to the tournament page. Ungheni municipality finished first in the locality ranking, level on points with the village of Măgdăcești in Criuleni district. Ungheni district had the most players: 153.
Gabriel Mironiuc, an 11-year-old pupil at the “Alexandr Pușkin” Lyceum in Ungheni, was the best-placed player from the Republic of Moldova in his section at the “Open Bohumín” international chess festival, held in July in the Czech Republic. The section — a classical FIDE-rated tournament — had 26 participants. Ungheni City Hall announced a bronze medal for him. He trains at the Ungheni Sports School — a town with a chess tradition that hosted, in 2021, a simultaneous exhibition with former world champion Anatoly Karpov.
The “Vara de Aur – 2026” chess festival brings 145 players together in six tournaments in Ungheni, between 16 and 19 July, and is organised by Ungheni City Hall. Nearly 6 in 10 participants are children. Only one tournament carries an international FIDE rating, and the only player with a classical title is an international master; no grandmaster is taking part. The Palace of Culture called the competition “one of the most important,” but the festival does not appear in the national competition calendar for 2026.
