Asiad, CWG, Hockey World Cup, Chess Championship & More — Check Indian Sports Calendar 2026

From multi-sport events like Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games to the FIH Hockey World Cup and the FIDE World Chess Championship, 2026 is staked with major non-cricket sporting events where India will participate.

Here are the significant events — not exhaustive — across several sports where India will look to achieve come out on top.

The Asian Games 2026 will be held in Aichi Prefecture and Nagoya in Japan from Sept. 19 to Oct. 4.

In Aichi-Nagoya 2026, which is the 20^th edition of the Asiad, India will aim to better their record haul of 107 medals — 28 gold, 38 silver and 41 bronze — in the last Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, in 2023.

The Commonwealth Games 2026 will be held in Glasgow, Scotland, from July 23 to Aug. 2. In the 23^rd edition of the CWG, only 10 sports will feature in the quadrennial event to cut down costs.

Nine sports — badminton, cricket, hockey, squash, table tennis, triathlon, wrestling, beach volleyball and rugby sevens — were there in the last edition in Birmingham but have been cut for Glasgow 2026. India had participated in all but two of the nine events that have been excluded.

The 2026 Men's FIH Hockey World Cup will be held from Aug. 14–30 in Belgium and the Netherlands. The quadrennial event will feature 16 teams, divided into eight groups of four each.

India qualified for the 16^th edition of the showpiece event by winning the Asia Cup. In the last edition in Odisha, India had finished at a disappointing ninth place.

Reigning World Champion D Gukesh will aim to defend his crown against the winner of the Candidates Tournament 2026.

Indian grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa is the only male Indian player to have qualified for the Candidates after winning the FIDE Circuit 2025.

The date and host city for the FIDE World Chess Championship 2026 have not been announced yet.

The BWF World Championships 2026 will be held in New Delhi from Aug. 17–23. The showpiece event is returning to India for the first time since 2009 when it was held in Hyderabad.

The duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will be India's biggest hope for a medal at the championship.

Women’s World Cup 2025 winner Divya Deshmukh and runner-up Koneru Humpy, as well as Grand Swiss 2025 title winner R Vaishali will be among the Indians who will play in the FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament 2026 in April.

The winner will challenge reigning champion Ju Wenjun for the Women's World Championship 2026.

India will be represented by alpine skier Arif Mohd Khan in the 2026 Winter Olympics Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy.

The athlete from Jammu & Kashmir was also the only Indian to participate in the 2022 edition of the event in Beijing.

The Indian women's football team qualified for the AFC Asian Cup 2026 by topping Group B of the qualifiers with wins in all the four matches.

The Blue Tigresses have been drawn with Japan, Vietnam and Chinese Taipei in Group C of the AFC Women's Asian Cup 2026, which will be held in Australia from March 1–16.