Chess Olympiad

The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete against each other. The event is organised byFIDE, which selects the host nation.

Contents  [hide] 1 Birth of the Olympiad 2 Recognised sport 3 Competition 4 Olympiads and top results in the open section 5 Total team ranking 6 Best individual results in the open section 7 See also 8 Notes 9 External links

[edit]Birth of the Olympiad

The first Olympiad was unofficial. For the 1924 Olympics an attempt was made to include chess in the Olympic Games but this failed because of problems with distinguishing between amateur and professional players.^[1] While the 1924 Summer Olympics was taking place in Paris, the 1st unofficial Chess Olympiad also took place in Paris. FIDE was formed on Sunday, July 20, 1924, the closing day of the 1st unofficial Chess Olympiad.^[2]

FIDE organised the first Official Olympiad in 1927 which took place in London.^[1] The Olympiads were occasionally held annually and at irregular intervals until World War II; since 1950 they have been held regularly every two years.^[1]

Growth of Chess Olympiads

There were 16 participating nations in the 1st Chess Olympiad, 1927.

By the 37th Chess Olympiad, 2006, there were 133 participating nations.

[edit]Recognised sport

Chess is a recognized sport by the International Olympic Committee^[3] with FIDE being the recognized International Sports Federation for chess since June 1999.^[3][4][5][6] As a member of the International Olympic Committee, FIDE adheres to its rules, including controversially having doping tests.^{[7][8][9][10]} The prospects of chess becoming an Olympic sporting event at some future date remain unclear. The naming of FIDE's team championship as the "Chess Olympiad" is of historical origin and implies no connection between this event and the Olympic Games.

[edit]Competition

Each FIDE recognized chess association can enter a team into the Olympiad (for the UK one team for each of the four countries plus Guernsey and Jersey can enter a team separately).^[1] Each team is made of up to five players, four regular players and one reserve (prior to the tournament in Dresden 2008 there were two reserves^[11]).^[1] Initially each team played all other teams but as the event grew over the years this became impossible.^[1] At first team seeding took place before the competition.^[1] Later certain drawbacks were recognized with seeding and in 1976 a Swiss tournament system was adopted.^[1]

The trophy for the winning team in the open section is the Hamilton-Russell Cup,^[1] which was offered by the English magnate Frederick Hamilton-Russell as a prize for the 1st Olympiad (London 1927). The cup is kept by the winning team until the next event, when it will be consigned to the next winner. The trophy for the winning women's team is known as the Vera Menchik Cup the first Women's World Chess Champion.

The 2010 Olympiad was held in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. The 2012 Olympiad is going to be held in Istanbul, Turkey and the 2014 Olympiadin Tromsø, Norway.

Bobby Fischer's score card from his round 3 game against Miguel Najdorf in the 1970 Chess Olympiad.

Symbol of 6th Chess Olympiad inWarsaw 1935 by J.Steifer

[edit]Olympiads and top results in the open section

Year	Event	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1924	1st unofficial Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad (individual)	Paris, France	Czechoslovakia 31	Hungary 30	Switzerland 29
1926	2nd unofficial Chess Olympiad The Team Tournament (part of FIDE summit)	Budapest, Hungary	Hungary 9	Yugoslavia 8	Romania 5
1927	1st Chess Olympiad	London, United Kingdom	Hungary 40	Denmark 38½	England 36½
1928	2nd Chess Olympiad	The Hague, Netherlands	Hungary 44	USA 39½	Poland 37
1930	3rd Chess Olympiad	Hamburg, Germany	Poland 48½	Hungary 47	Germany 44½
1931	4th Chess Olympiad	Prague, Czechoslovakia	USA 48	Poland 47	Czechoslovakia 46½
1933	5th Chess Olympiad	Folkestone, United Kingdom	USA 39	Czechoslovakia 37½	Sweden 34
1935	6th Chess Olympiad	Warsaw, Poland	USA 54	Sweden 52½	Poland 52
1936	3rd unofficial Chess Olympiad non-FIDE unofficial Chess Olympiad	Munich, Germany	Hungary 110½	Poland 108	Germany 106½
1937	7th Chess Olympiad	Stockholm, Sweden	USA 54½	Hungary 48½	Poland 47
1939	8th Chess Olympiad	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Germany 36	Poland 35½	Estonia 33½
1950	9th Chess Olympiad	Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia	Yugoslavia 45½	Argentina 43½	W. Germany 40½
1952	10th Chess Olympiad	Helsinki, Finland	USSR 21	Argentina 19½	Yugoslavia 19
1954	11th Chess Olympiad	Amsterdam, Netherlands	USSR 34	Argentina 27	Yugoslavia 26½
1956	12th Chess Olympiad	Moscow, Soviet Union	USSR 31	Yugoslavia 26½	Hungary 26½
1958	13th Chess Olympiad	Munich, West Germany	USSR 34½	Yugoslavia 29	Argentina 25½
1960	14th Chess Olympiad	Leipzig, East Germany	USSR 34	USA 29	Yugoslavia 27
1962	15th Chess Olympiad	Varna, Bulgaria	USSR 31½	Yugoslavia 28	Argentina 26
1964	16th Chess Olympiad	Tel Aviv, Israel	USSR 36½	Yugoslavia 32	W. Germany 30½
1966	17th Chess Olympiad	La Habana, Cuba	USSR 39½	USA 34½	Hungary 33½
1968	18th Chess Olympiad	Lugano, Switzerland	USSR 39½	Yugoslavia 31	Bulgaria 30
1970	19th Chess Olympiad	Siegen, West Germany	USSR 27½	Hungary 26½	Yugoslavia 26
1972	20th Chess Olympiad	Skopje, Yugoslavia	USSR 42	Hungary 40½	Yugoslavia 38
1974	21st Chess Olympiad	Nice, France	USSR 46	Yugoslavia 37½	USA 36½
1976	22nd Chess Olympiad *	Haifa, Israel	USA 37	Netherlands 36½	England 35½
1978	23rd Chess Olympiad	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Hungary 37	USSR 36	USA 35
1980	24th Chess Olympiad	Valletta, Malta	USSR 39	Hungary 39	USA 35
1982	25th Chess Olympiad	Lucerne, Switzerland	USSR 42½	Czechoslovakia 36	USA 35
1984	26th Chess Olympiad	Thessaloniki, Greece	USSR 41	England 37	USA 35
1986	27th Chess Olympiad	Dubai, UAE	USSR 40	England 39	USA 38
1988	28th Chess Olympiad	Thessaloniki, Greece	USSR 40½	England 34½	Netherlands 34½
1990	29th Chess Olympiad	Novi Sad, Yugoslavia	USSR 39	USA 35½	England 35½
1992	30th Chess Olympiad	Manila, Philippines	Russia 39	Uzbekistan 35	Armenia 34½
1994	31st Chess Olympiad	Moscow, Russia	Russia 37½	Bosnia/Herzegovina 35	Russia II 34½
1996	32nd Chess Olympiad	Yerevan, Armenia	Russia 38½	Ukraine 35	USA 34
1998	33rd Chess Olympiad	Elista, Russia	Russia 35½	USA 34½	Ukraine 32½
2000	34th Chess Olympiad	Istanbul, Turkey	Russia 38	Germany 37	Ukraine 35½
2002	35th Chess Olympiad	Bled, Slovenia	Russia 38½	Hungary 37½	Armenia 35
2004	36th Chess Olympiad	Calviá, Spain	Ukraine 39½	Russia 36½	Armenia 36½
2006	37th Chess Olympiad	Turin, Italy	Armenia 36	China 34	USA 33
2008	38th Chess Olympiad	Dresden, Germany	Armenia 19	Israel 18	USA 17
2010	39th Chess Olympiad	Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia	Ukraine 19	Russia 18	Israel 17
2012	40th Chess Olympiad	Istanbul, Turkey
2014	41st Chess Olympiad	Tromsø, Norway

* In 1976 the USSR and other communist countries did not compete for political reasons.

[edit]Total team ranking

The table contains the men's teams ranked by the medals won at the Chess Olympiad, including the unofficial events, ranked by the number of first place medals, ties broken by second-place medals, etc.

Rank	Country	1st place	2nd place	3rd place	Total
1	USSR	18	1	0	19
2	Russia	6	2	1	9
3	Hungary	5	7	2	14
4	USA	5	5	9	19
5	Ukraine	2	1	2	5
6	Armenia	2	0	3	5
7	Yugoslavia	1	7	5	13
7	Poland	1	3	3	7
7	Czechoslovakia	1	2	1	4
7	Germany*	1	1	4	6
11	England	0	3	3	6
11	Argentina	0	3	2	5
13	Netherlands	0	1	1	2
13	Sweden	0	1	1	2
13	Israel	0	1	1	2
16	Bosnia	0	1	0	1
16	China	0	1	0	1
16	Denmark	0	1	0	1
16	Uzbekistan	0	1	0	1
20	Bulgaria	0	0	1	1
20	Estonia	0	0	1	1
20	Romania	0	0	1	1
20	Switzerland	0	0	1	1

• Includes the results of Germany and West Germany.

[edit]Best individual results in the open section

The best individual results in order of overall percentage are:

#	Player	Country	Olymp.	Games	Won	Drawn	Lost	%	Medals
1	Mikhail Tal	Soviet Union	8	101	65	34	2	81.2	5 - 2 - 0
2	Anatoly Karpov	Soviet Union	6	68	43	23	2	80.1	3 - 2 - 0
3	Tigran Petrosian	Soviet Union	10	129	78	50	1	79.8	6 - 0 - 0
4	Isaac Kashdan	United States	5	79	52	22	5	79.7	2 - 1 - 2
5	Vassily Smyslov	Soviet Union	9	113	69	42	2	79.6	4 - 2 - 2
6	David Bronstein	Soviet Union	4	49	30	18	1	79.6	3 - 1 - 0
7	Garry Kasparov	Soviet Union (1)	8	82	50	29	3	78.7	7 - 2 - 2
8	Alexander Alekhine	France	5	72	43	27	2	78.5	2 - 2 - 0
9	Milan Matulovic	Yugoslavia	6	78	46	28	4	76.9	1 - 2 - 0
10	Paul Keres	Soviet Union (2)	10	141	85	44	12	75.9	5 - 1 - 1
11	Efim Geller	Soviet Union	7	76	46	23	7	75.6	3 - 3 - 0
12	James Tarjan	United States	5	51	32	13	6	75.5	2 - 1 - 0
13	Bobby Fischer	United States	4	65	40	18	7	75.4	0 - 2 - 1
14	Mikhail Botvinnik	Soviet Union	6	73	39	31	3	74.7	2 - 1 - 2
15	Salo Flohr	Czechoslovakia	7	82	46	28	8	73.2	2 - 1 - 1

Fischer and Tal at the 1960 Olympiad

NOTES:

• Only players participating to at least four Olympiads are considered in this table.
• Medals indicated are only individual ones (not team), in the order gold - silver - bronze.
• (1)  Kasparov played his first four olympiads for the USSR, the rest for Russia. Four gold medals are for best-rating performance
         (first introduced at Thessaloniki 1984) and three for best score on first board.
• (2)  Keres played his first three Olympiads for Estonia, the rest for the USSR.

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