Chess 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 41st Olympiad, 2014, there were 172 participating nations.

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

As a sporting federation recognized by the IOC, and particularly as a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) conventions,[3] FIDE adheres to their rules, including a requirement for doping tests,[4][5] which they are obligated to take at the events such as the Olympiad. The tests were first introduced in 2002 under significant controversy,[6] with the widespread belief that it was impossible to dope in chess. Research carried out by the Dutch chess federation failed to find a single performance-enhancing substance for chess.[7] According to Dr Helmut Pfleger, who has been conducting experiments in the field for around twenty years, "Both mentally stimulating and mentally calming medication have too many negative side effects".[7] Players such as Artur Yusupov,[8] Jan Timman[9] and Robert Hübner[10] either refused to play for their national team or to participate in events such as the Chess Olympiad where drug tests were administered. All 802 tests administered at the 2002 Olympiad came back negative.[11] However, in the 36th Chess Olympiad in 2004, two players refused to provide urine samples and had their scores cancelled.[12][13] Four years later, Vassily Ivanchuk was not penalized for skipping a drug test at the 38th Chess Olympiad in 2008, with a procedural error being indicated instead.[14]

In 2010, a FIDE official commented that due to the work of the FIDE Medical Commission, the tests were now considered routine.[15] In November 2015, FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov announced they are working with WADA to define and identify doping in chess.[16]

Each FIDE recognized chess association can enter a team into the Olympiad.[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[17]).[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 is consigned to the next winner. The trophy for the winning women's team is known as the Vera Menchik Cup in honor of the first Women's World Chess Champion.

Year	Event	Host	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	Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes 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	United States 39½	Poland 37
1930	3rd Chess Olympiad	Hamburg, Germany	Poland 48½	Hungary 47	Germany 44½
1931	4th Chess Olympiad	Prague, Czechoslovakia	United States 48	Poland 47	Czechoslovakia 46½
1933	5th Chess Olympiad	Folkestone, United Kingdom	United States 39	Czechoslovakia 37½	Sweden 34
1935	6th Chess Olympiad	Warsaw, Poland	United States 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	United States 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	West Germany 40½
1952	10th Chess Olympiad	Helsinki, Finland	Soviet Union 21	Argentina 19½	Yugoslavia 19
1954	11th Chess Olympiad	Amsterdam, Netherlands	Soviet Union 34	Argentina 27	Yugoslavia 26½
1956	12th Chess Olympiad	Moscow, Soviet Union	Soviet Union 31	Yugoslavia 26½	Hungary 26½
1958	13th Chess Olympiad	Munich, West Germany	Soviet Union 34½	Yugoslavia 29	Argentina 25½
1960	14th Chess Olympiad	Leipzig, East Germany	Soviet Union 34	United States 29	Yugoslavia 27
1962	15th Chess Olympiad	Varna, Bulgaria	Soviet Union 31½	Yugoslavia 28	Argentina 26
1964	16th Chess Olympiad	Tel Aviv, Israel	Soviet Union 36½	Yugoslavia 32	West Germany 30½
1966	17th Chess Olympiad	Havana, Cuba	Soviet Union 39½	United States 34½	Hungary 33½
1968	18th Chess Olympiad	Lugano, Switzerland	Soviet Union 39½	Yugoslavia 31	Bulgaria 30
1970	19th Chess Olympiad	Siegen, West Germany	Soviet Union 27½	Hungary 26½	Yugoslavia 26
1972	20th Chess Olympiad	Skopje, Yugoslavia	Soviet Union 42	Hungary 40½	Yugoslavia 38
1974	21st Chess Olympiad	Nice, France	Soviet Union 46	Yugoslavia 37½	United States 36½
1976	22nd Chess Olympiad *	Haifa, Israel	United States 37	Netherlands 36½	England 35½
1976	Against Chess Olympiad	Tripoli, Libya	El Salvador 38½	Tunisia 36	Pakistan 34½
1978	23rd Chess Olympiad	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Hungary 37	Soviet Union 36	United States 35
1980	24th Chess Olympiad	Valletta, Malta	Soviet Union 39	Hungary 39	Yugoslavia 35
1982	25th Chess Olympiad	Lucerne, Switzerland	Soviet Union 42½	Czechoslovakia 36	United States 35
1984	26th Chess Olympiad	Thessaloniki, Greece	Soviet Union 41	England 37	United States 35
1986	27th Chess Olympiad	Dubai, United Arab Emirates	Soviet Union 40	England 39	United States 38
1988	28th Chess Olympiad	Thessaloniki, Greece	Soviet Union 40½	England 34½	Netherlands 34½
1990	29th Chess Olympiad	Novi Sad, Yugoslavia	Soviet Union 39	United States 35½	England 35½
1992	30th Chess Olympiad	Manila, Philippines	Russia 39	Uzbekistan 35	Armenia 34½
1994	31st Chess Olympiad	Moscow, Russia	Russia 37½	Bosnia and Herzegovina 35	Russia "B" 34½
1996	32nd Chess Olympiad	Yerevan, Armenia	Russia 38½	Ukraine 35	United States 34
1998	33rd Chess Olympiad	Elista, Russia	Russia 35½	United States 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	Calvià, Spain	Ukraine 39½	Russia 36½	Armenia 36½
2006	37th Chess Olympiad	Turin, Italy	Armenia 36	China 34	United States 33
2008	38th Chess Olympiad	Dresden, Germany	Armenia 19	Israel 18	United States 17
2010	39th Chess Olympiad	Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia	Ukraine 19	Russia 18	Israel 17
2012	40th Chess Olympiad	Istanbul, Turkey	Armenia 19	Russia 19	Ukraine 18
2014	41st Chess Olympiad	Tromsø, Norway	China 19	Hungary 17	India 17
2016	42nd Chess Olympiad	Baku, Azerbaijan	United States 20	Ukraine 20	Russia 18
2018	43rd Chess Olympiad	Batumi, Georgia	China 18	United States 18	Russia 18
2021	44th Chess Olympiad †	Moscow, Russia
2022	45th Chess Olympiad	Minsk, Belarus
2023	46th Chess Olympiad	Budapest, Hungary

* In 1976, the  Soviet Union, other communist countries and Arabic countries did not compete for political reasons.
^† The 2021 event was originally scheduled for 2020, but postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. FIDE also organized an online olympiad.

Starting from 2008, the first criterion for determining ranking is match point instead of board point. Team scores 2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for a loss (that is, a 4-0 win or 2.5-1.5 win will get the same match point).

Symbol of the 6th Chess Olympiad in Warsaw 1935 by Jerzy Steifer

The table contains the Open teams ranked by the medals won at the Chess Olympiad (not including the unofficial events), ranked by the number of first place medals, ties broken by second-place medals, etc.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union	18	1	0	19
2	United States	6	6	8	20
3	Russia	6	3	3	12
4	Hungary	3	7	2	12
5	Armenia	3	0	3	6
6	Ukraine	2	2	3	7
7	China	2	1	0	3
8	Yugoslavia	1	6	6	13
9	Poland	1	2	3	6
10	Germany	1	1	3	5
11	England	0	3	3	6
12	Argentina	0	3	2	5
13	Czechoslovakia	0	2	1	3
14	Israel	0	1	1	2
	Netherlands	0	1	1	2
	Sweden	0	1	1	2
17	Bosnia and Herzegovina	0	1	0	1
	Denmark	0	1	0	1
	Uzbekistan	0	1	0	1
20	Bulgaria	0	0	1	1
	Estonia	0	0	1	1
	India	0	0	1	1
Totals (22 nations)		43	43	43	129

The best individual results in order of overall percentage are:

Rank	Player	Country	Ol.	Gms.	+	=	–	%	Medals	Number of medals
1	Mikhail Tal	Soviet Union	8	101	65	34	2	81.2	5 – 2 – 0	7
2	Anatoly Karpov	Soviet Union	6	68	43	23	2	80.1	3 – 2 – 0	5
3	Tigran Petrosian	Soviet Union	10	129	78	50	1	79.8	6 – 0 – 0	6
4	Isaac Kashdan	USA	5	79	52	22	5	79.7	2 – 1 – 2	5
5	Vasily Smyslov	Soviet Union	9	113	69	42	2	79.6	4 – 2 – 2	8
6	David Bronstein	Soviet Union	4	49	30	18	1	79.6	3 – 1 – 0	4
7	Garry Kasparov	Soviet Union (4) /  Russia (4)	8	82	50	29	3	78.7	3 – 1 – 2	6
8	Alexander Alekhine	France	5	72	43	27	2	78.5	2 – 2 – 0	4
9	Milan Matulović	Yugoslavia	6	78	46	28	4	76.9	1 – 2 – 0	3
10	Paul Keres	Estonia (3) /  Soviet Union (7)	10	141	85	44	12	75.9	5 – 1 – 1	7
11	Efim Geller	Soviet Union	7	76	46	23	7	75.6	3 – 3 – 0	6
12	James Tarjan	USA	5	51	32	13	6	75.5	2 – 1 – 0	3
13	Bobby Fischer	USA	4	65	40	18	7	75.4	0 – 2 – 1	3
14	Mikhail Botvinnik	Soviet Union	6	73	39	31	3	74.7	2 – 1 – 2	5
15	Sergey Karjakin	Ukraine (3) /  Russia (5)	8	47	24	22	1	74.7	2 – 0 – 1	3
16	Salo Flohr	Czechoslovakia	7	82	46	28	8	73.2	2 – 1 – 1	4

Fischer and Tal at the 1960 Olympiad

Notes

• Only players participating in at least four Olympiads are included in this table.
• Medals indicated are only individual ones (not team), in the order gold - silver - bronze.
• Garry Kasparov played his first four Olympiads for the Soviet Union, the rest for Russia. His four gold medals are one for best-rating performance (first introduced at Thessaloniki 1984) and three for best score on first board.
• Paul Keres played his first three Olympiads for Estonia, the rest for the Soviet Union.
• Sergey Karjakin played his first three Olympiads for Ukraine, the rest for Russia

• FIDE Handbook: Chess Olympiads
• OlimpBase: Chess Olympiads
• Student Chess Olympiad - World Student Team Chess Championship