A chess team has $26$ members. However, only $16$ members attended the last meeting: half of the girls attended but all of the boys attended. How many boys are on the chess team?
Let there be $B$ boys and $G$ girls. Since every member is either a boy or a girl, $B+G=26$. Also, we have $\frac{1}{2}G+B=16$. Multiplying the second equation by $2$, we get $G+2B=32$. Subtracting the first equation from this, we get $B=32-26=6$.

Thus there are $\boxed{6}$ boys on the chess team.