Chess Olympiad 2010 : History and facts of the Chess Olympiad

Chess Olympiad

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35th Chess Olympiad, Bled 2002

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

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

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.

The olympiad was created by a Maltese man by the name of 
Joseph Pisani-Rossi

Recognised sport

Chess is a recognized sport by the International Olympic Committee  with FIDE being the recognized International Sports Federation for chess since June 1999. As a member of the International Olympic Committee, FIDE adheres to its rules, including controversially having doping tests. 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.

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). Each team is made of up to six players, four regular players and two reserves (changed to four regular and one alternate in Dresden 2008. Initially each team played all other teams but as the event grew over the years this became impossible. At first team seeding took place before the competition. Later certain drawbacks were recognized with seeding and in 1976 a Swiss tournament system was adopted.
The trophy for winning the men's team is the Hamilton-Russell Cup, 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 2008 Olympiad was held in Dresden, Germany. The 2010 Olympiad is going to be held in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, and the 2012 Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey. The bids for the 2014 Olympiad include Tromso, Norway  and Albena, Bulgaria.

Symbol of 6th Chess Olympiad in Warsaw 1935 by J.Steifer

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

Best individual results in men's Olympiads

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.

#	Player	Country	Olymp.	Games	Won	Drawn	Lost	%	Medals
1	Tal, MikhailMikhail Tal	Soviet Union	8	101	65	34	2	81.2	5 - 2 - 0
2	Karpov, AnatolyAnatoly Karpov	Soviet Union	6	68	43	23	2	80.1	3 - 2 - 0
3	Petrosian, TigranTigran Petrosian	Soviet Union	10	129	78	50	1	79.8	6 - 0 - 0
4	Kashdan, IsaacIsaac Kashdan	United States	5	79	52	22	5	79.7	2 - 1 - 2
5	Smyslov, VassilyVassily Smyslov	Soviet Union	9	113	69	42	2	79.6	4 - 2 - 2
6	Bronstein, DavidDavid Bronstein	Soviet Union	4	49	30	18	1	79.6	3 - 1 - 0
7	Kasparov, GarryGarry Kasparov	Soviet Union (1)	8	82	50	29	3	78.7	7 - 2 - 2
8	Alekhine, AlexanderAlexander Alekhine	France	5	72	43	27	2	78.5	2 - 2 - 0
9	Matulovic, MilanMilan Matulovic	Yugoslavia	6	78	46	28	4	76.9	1 - 2 - 0
10	Keres, PaulPaul Keres	Soviet Union (2)	10	141	85	44	12	75.9	5 - 1 - 1
11	Geller, EfimEfim Geller	Soviet Union	7	76	46	23	7	75.6	3 - 3 - 0
12	Tarjan, JamesJames Tarjan	United States	5	51	32	13	6	75.5	2 - 1 - 0
13	Fischer, BobbyBobby Fischer	United States	4	65	40	18	7	75.4	0 - 2 - 1
14	Botvinnik, MikhailMikhail Botvinnik	Soviet Union	6	73	39	31	3	74.7	2 - 1 - 2
15	Flohr, SaloSalo Flohr	Czechoslovakia	7	82	46	28	8	73.2	2 - 1 - 1

Fischer and Tal at the 1960 Olympiad  

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