Chess Olympiad Explained

Chess Olympiad
Status:	Active
Genre:	Sports Event
Frequency:	Biennial
Location:	Various
Organised:	FIDE
Current:	44th Chess Olympiad

The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 and 2021, with a rapid time control that affected players' online ratings.

The use of the name "Chess Olympiad" for FIDE's team championship is of historical origin and implies no connection with the Olympic Games.

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.^[1] 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.

Drug testing

As a sporting federation recognized by the IOC, and particularly as a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) conventions,^[2] FIDE adheres to their rules, including a requirement for doping tests,^{[3] [4]} which they are obligated to take at the events such as the Olympiad. The tests were first introduced in 2002 under significant controversy,^[5] 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.^[6] 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".^[6] Players such as Artur Yusupov,^[7] Jan Timman^[8] and Robert Hübner^[9] 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.^[10] However, in the 36th Chess Olympiad in 2004, two players refused to provide urine samples and had their scores cancelled.^{[11] [12]} 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.^[13]

In 2010, a FIDE official commented that due to the work of the FIDE Medical Commission, the tests were now considered routine.^[14] In November 2015, FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov announced they are working with WADA to define and identify doping in chess.^[15]

Competition

Each FIDE-recognized chess association can enter a team into the Olympiad. 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^[16]).

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, with teams playing in preliminary groups and then finals. Later certain drawbacks were recognized with seeding and in 1976 a Swiss tournament system was adopted. Starting from 2008, the first criterion for determining ranking has been match points instead of board points. Teams score 2 points for a match win, 1 point for a drawn match and 0 points for a match loss.

The trophy for the winning team in the open section 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 is consigned to the next winner.

There is a separate women's competition. Since 1976 it has been held at the same time and venue as the open event, with the two competitions comprising the Chess Olympiad. 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.

Results

Year	Event	Host	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1924	1st unofficial Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad (individual)		31 Karel Hromádka, Jan Schulz, Karel Vaněk, Karel Skalička	Hungary 30 Árpád Vajda, Károly Sterk, Endre Steiner, Kornél Havasi	Switzerland 29 Erwin Voellmy, Otto Zimmermann, Hans Johner, Oskar Naegeli
1926	2nd unofficial Chess Olympiad The Team Tournament (part of FIDE summit)	Budapest, Hungary	Hungary 9 Endre Steiner, Árpád Vajda, Károly Sterk, György Négyesy, Elek Bakonyi, Sándor Zinner	8 Boris Kostić, Lajos Asztalos, Stevan Ćirić, Imre György	5 János Balogh, Miklós Bródy, Alexandru Tyroler, Iosif Mendelssohn, Zeno Proca
1927			Hungary 40 Géza Maróczy, Géza Nagy, Árpád Vajda, Kornél Havasi, Endre Steiner	Denmark 38½ Orla Hermann Krause, Holger Norman-Hansen, Erik Andersen, Karl Ruben	36½ Henry Atkins, Fred Yates, George Thomas, Reginald Michell, Edmund Spencer
1928			Hungary 44 Géza Nagy, Endre Steiner, Árpád Vajda, Kornél Havasi	United States 39½ Isaac Kashdan, Herman Steiner, Samuel Factor, Erling Tholfsen, Milton Hanauer	Poland 37 Kazimierz Makarczyk, Paulin Frydman, Teodor Regedziński, Mieczysław Chwojnik, Abram Blass
1930		Hamburg, Germany	Poland 48½ Akiba Rubinstein, Savielly Tartakower, Dawid Przepiórka, Kazimierz Makarczyk, Paulin Frydman	Hungary 47 Géza Maróczy, Sándor Takács, Árpád Vajda, Kornél Havasi, Endre Steiner	Germany 44½ Carl Ahues, Friedrich Sämisch, Carl Carls, Kurt Richter, Heinrich Wagner
1931			United States 48 Isaac Kashdan, Frank Marshall, Arthur Dake, Israel Horowitz, Herman Steiner	Poland 47 Akiba Rubinstein, Savielly Tartakower, Dawid Przepiórka, Kazimierz Makarczyk, Paulin Frydman	46½ Salo Flohr, Karl Gilg, Josef Rejfíř, Karel Opočenský, Karel Skalička
1933			United States 39 Isaac Kashdan, Frank Marshall, Reuben Fine, Arthur Dake, Albert Simonson	37½ Salo Flohr, Karel Treybal, Josef Rejfíř, Karel Opočenský, Karel Skalička	Sweden 34 Gideon Ståhlberg, Gösta Stoltz, Erik Lundin, Karl Berndtsson
1935			United States 54 Reuben Fine, Frank Marshall, Abraham Kupchik, Arthur Dake, Israel Horowitz	Sweden 52½ Gideon Ståhlberg, Gösta Stoltz, Erik Lundin, Gösta Danielsson, Ernst Larsson	Poland 52 Savielly Tartakower, Paulin Frydman, Mieczysław Najdorf, Henryk Friedman, Kazimierz Makarczyk
1936	3rd unofficial Chess Olympiad non-FIDE unofficial Chess Olympiad		Hungary 110½ Géza Maróczy, Lajos Steiner, Endre Steiner, Kornél Havasi, László Szabó, Gedeon Barcza, Árpád Vajda, Ernő Gereben, János Balogh, Imre Korody	Poland 108 Paulin Frydman, Mieczysław Najdorf, Teodor Regedziński, Kazimierz Makarczyk, Henryk Friedman, Leon Kremer, Henryk Pogorieły, Antoni Wojciechowski, Franciszek Sulik, Jerzy Jagielski	Germany 106½ Kurt Richter, Carl Ahues, Ludwig Engels, Carl Carls, Ludwig Rellstab, Friedrich Sämisch, Ludwig Rödl, Herbert Heinicke, Wilhelm Ernst, Paul Michel
1937			United States 54½ Samuel Reshevsky, Reuben Fine, Isaac Kashdan, Frank Marshall, Israel Horowitz	Hungary 48½ Andor Lilienthal, László Szabó, Endre Steiner, Kornél Havasi, Árpád Vajda	Poland 47 Savielly Tartakower, Mieczysław Najdorf, Paulin Frydman, Izaak Appel, Teodor Regedziński
1939			Germany 36 Erich Eliskases, Paul Michel, Ludwig Engels, Albert Becker, Heinrich Reinhardt	Poland 35½ Savielly Tartakower, Mieczysław Najdorf, Paulin Frydman, Teodor Regedziński, Franciszek Sulik	Estonia 33½ Paul Keres, Ilmar Raud, Paul Schmidt, Gunnar Friedemann, Johannes Türn
1950			45½ Svetozar Gligorić, Vasja Pirc, Petar Trifunović, Braslav Rabar, Milan Vidmar Jr., Stojan Puc	Argentina 43½ Miguel Najdorf, Julio Bolbochán, Carlos Guimard, Héctor Rossetto, Hermann Pilnik	40½ Wolfgang Unzicker, Lothar Schmid, Gerhard Pfeiffer, Ludwig Rellstab, Hans-Hilmar Staudte
1952			21 Paul Keres, Vasily Smyslov, David Bronstein, Efim Geller, Isaac Boleslavsky, Alexander Kotov	Argentina 19½ Miguel Najdorf, Julio Bolbochán, Erich Eliskases, Hermann Pilnik, Héctor Rossetto	19 Svetozar Gligorić, Braslav Rabar, Petar Trifunović, Vasja Pirc, Andrija Fuderer, Borislav Milić
1954			34 Mikhail Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslov, David Bronstein, Paul Keres, Efim Geller, Alexander Kotov	Argentina 27 Miguel Najdorf, Julio Bolbochán, Oscar Panno, Carlos Guimard, Héctor Rossetto, Hermann Pilnik	26½ Vasja Pirc, Svetozar Gligorić, Petar Trifunović, Braslav Rabar, Andrija Fuderer, Aleksandar Matanović
1956			31 Mikhail Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslov, Paul Keres, David Bronstein, Mark Taimanov, Efim Geller	26½ Svetozar Gligorić, Aleksandar Matanović, Borislav Ivkov, Nikola Karaklajić, Borislav Milić, Božidar Đurašević	Hungary 26½ László Szabó, Gedeon Barcza, Pál Benkő, György Szilágyi, Miklós Bély, Lajos Portisch
1958			34½ Mikhail Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslov, Paul Keres, David Bronstein, Mikhail Tal, Tigran Petrosian	29 Svetozar Gligorić, Aleksandar Matanović, Borislav Ivkov, Petar Trifunović, Božidar Đurašević, Andrija Fuderer	Argentina 25½ Hermann Pilnik, Oscar Panno, Erich Eliskases, Rodolfo Redolfi, Raúl Sanguineti, Jaime Emma
1960			34 Mikhail Tal, Mikhail Botvinnik, Paul Keres, Viktor Korchnoi, Vasily Smyslov, Tigran Petrosian	United States 29 Bobby Fischer, William Lombardy, Robert Byrne, Arthur Bisguier, Nicolas Rossolimo, Raymond Weinstein	27 Svetozar Gligorić, Aleksandar Matanović, Borislav Ivkov, Mario Bertok, Mato Damjanović, Milan Vukčević
1962		Varna, Bulgaria	31½ Mikhail Botvinnik, Tigran Petrosian, Boris Spassky, Paul Keres, Efim Geller, Mikhail Tal	28 Svetozar Gligorić, Petar Trifunović, Aleksandar Matanović, Borislav Ivkov, Bruno Parma, Dragoljub Minić	Argentina 26 Miguel Najdorf, Julio Bolbochán, Oscar Panno, Raúl Sanguineti, Héctor Rossetto, Alberto Foguelman
1964			36½ Tigran Petrosian, Mikhail Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslov, Paul Keres, Leonid Stein, Boris Spassky	32 Svetozar Gligorić, Borislav Ivkov, Aleksandar Matanović, Bruno Parma, Mijo Udovčić, Milan Matulović	30½ Wolfgang Unzicker, Klaus Darga, Lothar Schmid, Helmut Pfleger, Dieter Mohrlok, Wolfram Bialas
1966			39½ Tigran Petrosian, Boris Spassky, Mikhail Tal, Leonid Stein, Viktor Korchnoi, Lev Polugaevsky	United States 34½ Bobby Fischer, Robert Byrne, Pal Benko, Larry Evans, William Addison, Nicolas Rossolimo	33½ Lajos Portisch, László Szabó, István Bilek, Levente Lengyel, Győző Forintos, László Bárczay
1968			39½ Tigran Petrosian, Boris Spassky, Viktor Korchnoi, Efim Geller, Lev Polugaevsky, Vasily Smyslov	31 Svetozar Gligorić, Borislav Ivkov, Aleksandar Matanović, Milan Matulović, Bruno Parma, Dragoljub Čirić	Bulgaria 30 Milko Bobotsov, Georgi Tringov, Nikola Padevsky, Atanas Kolarov, Ivan Radulov, Peicho Peev
1970			27½ Boris Spassky, Tigran Petrosian, Viktor Korchnoi, Lev Polugaevsky, Vasily Smyslov, Efim Geller	26½ Lajos Portisch, Levente Lengyel, István Bilek, Győző Forintos, István Csom, Zoltán Ribli	26 Svetozar Gligorić, Borislav Ivkov, Milan Matulović, Aleksandar Matanović, Bruno Parma, Dragoljub Minić
1972			42 Tigran Petrosian, Viktor Korchnoi, Vasily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal, Anatoly Karpov, Vladimir Savon	40½ Lajos Portisch, István Bilek, Győző Forintos, Zoltán Ribli, István Csom, Gyula Sax	38 Svetozar Gligorić, Borislav Ivkov, Ljubomir Ljubojević, Aleksandar Matanović, Milan Matulović, Josip Rukavina
1974			46 Anatoly Karpov, Viktor Korchnoi, Boris Spassky, Tigran Petrosian, Mikhail Tal, Gennady Kuzmin	37½ Svetozar Gligorić, Ljubomir Ljubojević, Borislav Ivkov, Albin Planinc, Dragoljub Velimirović, Bruno Parma	United States 36½ Lubomir Kavalek, Robert Byrne, Walter Browne, Samuel Reshevsky, William Lombardy, James Tarjan
1976	22nd Chess Olympiad *		United States 37 Robert Byrne, Lubomir Kavalek, Larry Evans, James Tarjan, William Lombardy, Kim Commons	Netherlands 36½ Jan Timman, Gennadi Sosonko, Jan Hein Donner, Hans Ree, Gert Ligterink, Franciscus Kuijpers	35½ Tony Miles, Raymond Keene, William Hartston, Michael Stean, Jonathan Mestel, John Nunn
1976			El Salvador 38½ Antonio Grimaldi, René Grimaldi, Salvador Infante, Roberto Camacho, Boris Pineda, Manuel Velásquez	Tunisia 36 Slim Bouaziz, Ridha Belkadi, Ahmed Drira, Sbia	Pakistan 34½ Zahiruddin Farooqui, Rahat Ali, Nazir Ahmad, Shahzad Mirza, Gholam Mohiuddin, Shaikh Mazhar Hussain
1978			37 Lajos Portisch, Zoltán Ribli, Gyula Sax, András Adorján, István Csom, László Vadász	36 Boris Spassky, Tigran Petrosian, Lev Polugaevsky, Boris Gulko, Oleg Romanishin, Rafael Vaganian	United States 35 Lubomir Kavalek, Walter Browne, Anatoly Lein, Robert Byrne, James Tarjan, William Lombardy
1980			39 Anatoly Karpov, Lev Polugaevsky, Mikhail Tal, Efim Geller, Yuri Balashov, Garry Kasparov	39 Lajos Portisch, Zoltán Ribli, Gyula Sax, István Csom, Iván Faragó, József Pintér	35 Ljubomir Ljubojević, Borislav Ivkov, Bruno Parma, Bojan Kurajica, Slavoljub Marjanović, Predrag Nikolić
1982			42½ Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, Lev Polugaevsky, Alexander Beliavsky, Mikhail Tal, Artur Yusupov	36 Vlastimil Hort, Jan Smejkal, Ľubomír Ftáčnik, Vlastimil Jansa, Ján Plachetka, Jan Ambrož	United States 35½ Walter Browne, Yasser Seirawan, Lev Alburt, Lubomir Kavalek, James Tarjan, Larry Christiansen
1984			41 Alexander Beliavsky, Lev Polugaevsky, Rafael Vaganian, Vladimir Tukmakov, Artur Yusupov, Andrei Sokolov	37 Tony Miles, John Nunn, Jon Speelman, Murray Chandler, Jonathan Mestel, Nigel Short	United States 35 Roman Dzindzichashvili, Lubomir Kavalek, Larry Christiansen, Walter Browne, Lev Alburt, Nick de Firmian
1986			40 Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Andrei Sokolov, Artur Yusupov, Rafael Vaganian, Vitaly Tseshkovsky	39½ Tony Miles, John Nunn, Nigel Short, Murray Chandler, Jon Speelman, Glenn Flear	United States 38½ Yasser Seirawan, Larry Christiansen, Lubomir Kavalek, John Fedorowicz, Nick de Firmian, Maxim Dlugy
1988			40½ Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Artur Yusupov, Alexander Beliavsky, Jaan Ehlvest, Vassily Ivanchuk	34½ Nigel Short, Jon Speelman, John Nunn, Murray Chandler, Jonathan Mestel, William Watson	Netherlands 34½ John van der Wiel, Gennadi Sosonko, Paul van der Sterren, Jeroen Piket, Marinus Kuijf, Rudy Douven
1990			39 Vassily Ivanchuk, Boris Gelfand, Alexander Beliavsky, Artur Yusupov, Leonid Yudasin, Evgeny Bareev	United States 35½ Yasser Seirawan, Boris Gulko, Larry Christiansen, Joel Benjamin, John Fedorowicz, Nick de Firmian	35½ Nigel Short, Jon Speelman, John Nunn, Michael Adams, Murray Chandler, Julian Hodgson
1992			39 Garry Kasparov, Alexander Khalifman, Sergey Dolmatov, Alexey Dreev, Vladimir Kramnik, Alexey Vyzmanavin	Uzbekistan 35 Valery Loginov, Grigory Serper, Alexander Nenashev, Sergey Zagrebelny, Mihail Saltaev, Saidali Iuldachev	Armenia 34½ Rafael Vaganian, Vladimir Akopian, Smbat Lputian, Artashes Minasian, Arshak Petrosian, Ashot Anastasian
1994			37½ Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, Evgeny Bareev, Alexey Dreev, Sergei Tiviakov, Peter Svidler	Bosnia and Herzegovina 35 Predrag Nikolić, Ivan Sokolov, Bojan Kurajica, Emir Dizdarević, Nebojša Nikolić, Rade Milovanović	34½ Alexander Morozevich, Vadim Zvjaginsev, Mikhail Ulibin, Sergei Rublevsky, Konstantin Sakaev, Vasily Yemelin
1996			38½ Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, Alexey Dreev, Peter Svidler, Evgeny Bareev, Sergei Rublevsky	Ukraine 35 Vasyl Ivanchuk, Vladimir Malaniuk, Oleg Romanishin, Igor Novikov, Alexander Onischuk, Stanislav Savchenko	United States 34 Boris Gulko, Alex Yermolinsky, Nick de Firmian, Gregory Kaidanov, Joel Benjamin, Larry Christiansen
1998			35½ Peter Svidler, Sergei Rublevsky, Evgeny Bareev, Alexander Morozevich, Vadim Zvjaginsev, Konstantin Sakaev	United States 34½ Alex Yermolinsky, Alexander Shabalov, Yasser Seirawan, Boris Gulko, Nick de Firmian, Gregory Kaidanov	Ukraine 32½ Vasyl Ivanchuk, Alexander Onischuk, Oleg Romanishin, Vladimir Malaniuk, Stanislav Savchenko, Ruslan Ponomariov
2000			38 Alexander Khalifman, Alexander Morozevich, Peter Svidler, Sergei Rublevsky, Konstantin Sakaev, Alexander Grischuk	Germany 37 Artur Yusupov, Robert Hübner, Rustem Dautov, Christopher Lutz, Klaus Bischoff, Thomas Luther	Ukraine 35½ Vasyl Ivanchuk, Ruslan Ponomariov, Vladimir Baklan, Vereslav Eingorn, Oleg Romanishin, Vadim Malakhatko
2002			38½ Garry Kasparov, Alexander Grischuk, Alexander Khalifman, Alexander Morozevich, Peter Svidler, Sergei Rublevsky	Hungary 37½ Péter Lékó, Judit Polgár, Zoltán Almási, Zoltán Gyimesi, Róbert Ruck, Péter Ács	Armenia 35 Vladimir Akopian, Smbat Lputian, Karen Asrian, Gabriel Sargissian, Artashes Minasian, Ashot Anastasian
2004			Ukraine 39½ Vasyl Ivanchuk, Ruslan Ponomariov, Andrei Volokitin, Alexander Moiseenko, Pavel Eljanov, Sergey Karjakin	36½ Alexander Morozevich, Peter Svidler, Alexander Grischuk, Alexey Dreev, Alexander Khalifman, Vadim Zvjaginsev	Armenia 36½ Vladimir Akopian, Levon Aronian, Rafael Vaganian, Smbat Lputian, Gabriel Sargissian, Artashes Minasian
2006			Armenia 36 Levon Aronian, Vladimir Akopian, Karen Asrian, Smbat Lputian, Gabriel Sargissian, Artashes Minasian	China 34 Bu Xiangzhi, Zhang Zhong, Zhang Pengxiang, Wang Yue, Ni Hua, Zhao Jun	United States 33 Gata Kamsky, Alexander Onischuk, Hikaru Nakamura, Ildar Ibragimov, Gregory Kaidanov, Varuzhan Akobian
2008			Armenia 19 Levon Aronian, Vladimir Akopian, Gabriel Sargissian, Tigran L. Petrosian, Artashes Minasian	Israel 18 Boris Gelfand, Michael Roiz, Boris Avrukh, Evgeny Postny, Maxim Rodshtein	United States 17 Gata Kamsky, Hikaru Nakamura, Alexander Onischuk, Yury Shulman, Varuzhan Akobian
2010			Ukraine 19 Vasyl Ivanchuk, Ruslan Ponomariov, Pavel Eljanov, Zahar Efimenko, Alexander Moiseenko	18 Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Grischuk, Peter Svidler, Sergey Karjakin, Vladimir Malakhov	Israel 17 Boris Gelfand, Emil Sutovsky, Ilya Smirin, Maxim Rodshtein, Victor Mikhalevski
2012			Armenia 19 Levon Aronian, Sergei Movsesian, Vladimir Akopian, Gabriel Sargissian, Tigran L. Petrosian	19 Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Grischuk, Sergey Karjakin, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Dmitry Jakovenko	Ukraine 18 Vasyl Ivanchuk, Ruslan Ponomariov, Andrei Volokitin, Pavel Eljanov, Alexander Moiseenko
2014			China 19 Wang Yue, Ding Liren, Yu Yangyi, Ni Hua, Wei Yi	Hungary 17 Péter Lékó, Csaba Balogh, Zoltán Almási, Richárd Rapport, Judit Polgár	India 17 Parimarjan Negi, Panayappan Sethuraman, Krishnan Sasikiran, Adhiban Baskaran, Musunuri Rohit Lalit Babu
2016			United States 20 Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So, Sam Shankland, Ray Robson	Ukraine 20 Pavel Eljanov, Ruslan Ponomariov, Yuriy Kryvoruchko, Anton Korobov, Andrei Volokitin	18 Sergey Karjakin, Vladimir Kramnik, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alexander Grischuk
2018			China 18 Ding Liren, Yu Yangyi, Wei Yi, Bu Xiangzhi, Li Chao	United States 18 Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Hikaru Nakamura, Sam Shankland, Ray Robson	18 Sergey Karjakin, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Dmitry Jakovenko, Vladimir Kramnik, Nikita Vitiugov
2020	Online Chess Olympiad ^†	(Virtual)	India ^‡ Vidit Gujrathi, Pentala Harikrishna, Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, Divya Deshmukh, Viswanathan Anand, Nihal Sarin, Vantika Agrawal, Aravindh Chithambaram, Bhakti Kulkarni, Rameshbabu Vaishali Ian Nepomniachtchi, Vladislav Artemiev, Kateryna Lagno, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Alexey Sarana, Polina Shuvalova, Daniil Dubov, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Andrey Esipenko, Alexander Grischuk, Valentina Gunina, Margarita Potapova	-	Poland Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Radosław Wojtaszek, Monika Soćko, Karina Cyfka, Igor Janik, Alicja Śliwicka, Grzegorz Gajewski, Szymon Gumularz, Mateusz Bartel, Iweta Rajlich, Jolanta Zawadzka United States Wesley So, Sam Shankland, Anna Zatonskih, Tatev Abrahamyan, Jeffery Xiong, Annie Wang, Carissa Yip, Ray Robson
2021	Online Chess Olympiad ^†	China (Virtual)	Daniil Dubov, Vladislav Artemiev, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Andrey Esipenko, Polina Shuvalova, Kateryna Lagno, Leya Garifullina, Valentina Gunina, Alexander Grischuk, Vladimir Fedoseev, Volodar Murzin	United States Jeffery Xiong, Ray Robson, Irina Krush, Nazí Paikidze, Awonder Liang, Thalia Cervantes Landeiro, Dariusz Świercz, Anna Zatonskih	China Ding Liren, Yu Yangyi, Hou Yifan, Ju Wenjun, Wang Shixu B, Ning Kaiyu, Xu Zhihang, Wei Yi, Lei Tingjie, Bu Xiangzhi, Zhu Jiner, Huang Qian India Viswanathan Anand, Pentala Harikrishna, Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, Nihal Sarin, Rameshbabu Vaishali, Vidit Gujrathi, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, Adhiban Baskaran, Tania Sachdev, Bhakti Kulkarni, Savitha Shri B
2022	44th Chess Olympiad ^§		Uzbekistan 19 Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Nodirbek Yakubboev, Javokhir Sindarov, Jahongir Vakhidov, Shamsiddin Vokhidov	Armenia 19 Gabriel Sargissian, Hrant Melkumyan, Samvel Ter-Sahakyan, Manuel Petrosyan, Robert Hovhannisyan	India 18 Dommaraju Gukesh, Nihal Sarin, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, Adhiban Baskaran, Raunak Sadhwani
2024	45th Chess Olympiad	Budapest, Hungary
2026	46th Chess Olympiad	Tashkent, Uzbekistan^[17]
2028	47th Chess Olympiad	Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates^[18]

* In 1976, the, other Communist countries and Arabic countries did not compete for political reasons.
^† FIDE organized the online olympiads in 2020 and 2021 following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
^‡ Russia and India were subsequently declared joint winners after several Indian team members experienced connectivity issues due to a global outage of Cloudflare servers in 2020 Online Chess Olympiad.
^§ The 2022 event was originally planned to be held in Minsk, Belarus, but it was rescheduled to Moscow, which originally was host of the 2020 Olympiad, which was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, FIDE made a statement in February 2022 that the tournament will not take place in Russia and will be shifted to Chennai, India.

Gaprindashvili Trophy

The trophy, named after the former women's World Champion Nona Gaprindashvili (1961–1978) and it was created by FIDE in 1997. The Trophy is awarded to the nation that has the highest total number of match points in the open and women's divisions combined.

Year	Nation
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006	China
2008	Ukraine
2010
2012
2014	China
2016	Ukraine
2018	China
2022

Total team ranking

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

Most successful players

Boldface denotes active chess players and highest medal count among all players (including these who not included in these tables) per type.

Multiple team champions

Rank	Player	Country	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1			1958	1978	9	1	–	10
2			1952	1972	9	–	–	9
3			1980	2002	8	–	–	8
			1958	1982	8	–	–	8
5			1939	1964	7	–	1	8
6			1952	1980	7	–	–	7
7			1966	1984	6	1	–	7
			1962	1978	6	1	–	7
9			1954	1964	6	–	–	6
			1972	1988	6	–	–	6
			1960	1974	6	–	–	6

Multiple team medalists

The table shows players who have won at least 7 team medals in total at the Chess Olympiads.

Rank	Player	Country	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1			1950	1974	1	6	5	12
2			1958	1978	9	1	–	10
3			1956	1980	–	6	4	10
4			1952	1972	9	–	–	9
5			1954	1972	–	5	4	9
6			1980	2002	8	–	–	8
			1958	1982	8	–	–	8
8			1939	1964	7	–	1	8
9	Vassily (Vasyl) Ivanchuk		1988	2012	4	1	3	8
10			1952	1980	7	–	–	7
11			1966	1984	6	1	–	7
			1962	1978	6	1	–	7
13			1992	2018	3	2	2	7
14			1935	1962	–	4	3	7

Best individual results in the open section

The best individual results in order of overall percentage are:

Rank	Player	Country	Ol.	Gms.	+	=	–	%	Individual medals	Number of ind. medals	Team medals	Number of team medals
1			8	101	65	34	2	81.2	5 – 2 – 0	7	8 – 0 – 0	8
2			6	68	43	23	2	80.1	3 – 0 – 0	3	6 – 0 – 0	6
3			10	129	78	50	1	79.8	6 – 0 – 0	6	9 – 1 – 0	10
4			5	79	52	22	5	79.7	2 – 1 – 2	5	3 – 1 – 0	4
5			9	113	69	42	2	79.6	4 – 2 – 2	8	9 – 0 – 0	9
6			4	49	30	18	1	79.6	3 – 1 – 0	4	4 – 0 – 0	4
7		(4) (4)	8	82	50	29	3	78.7	3 – 1 – 2	6	8 – 0 – 0	8
8			5	72	43	27	2	78.5	2 – 2 – 0	4	0 – 0 – 0	0
9			6	78	46	28	4	76.9	1 – 2 – 0	3	0 – 2 – 2	4
10		Estonia (3) (7)	10	141	85	44	12	75.9	5 – 1 – 1	7	7 – 0 – 1	8
11			7	76	46	23	7	75.7	3 – 3 – 0	6	7 – 0 – 0	7
12=			4	51	29	19	3	75.5	2 – 0 – 0	2	3 – 0 – 0	3
12=			5	51	32	13	6	75.5	2 – 0 – 1	3	1 – 0 – 3	4
14			4	65	40	18	7	75.4	0 – 2 – 1	3	0 – 2 – 0	2
15			4	38	20	17	1	75.0	0 – 2 – 2	4	0 – 0 – 2	2
16			6	73	39	31	3	74.7	2 – 1 – 2	5	6 – 0 – 0	6
17			4	37	23	9	5	74.3	0 – 1 – 0	1	0 – 0 – 0	0
18			4	35	20	12	3	74.3	1 – 0 – 0	1	1 – 1 – 0	2
19			4	38	19	18	1	73.7	1 – 0 – 1	2	2 – 0 – 0	2
20			5	82	46	28	8	73.2	2 – 1 – 1	4	0 – 1 – 1	2

Notes

• Only players participating in at least four Olympiads are included in this table.
• Medals indicated in the order gold - silver - bronze. The statistics of individual medals includes only medals which are awarding to the top three individual players on each board. The medals for overall performance rating (awarded in 1984–2006) are not included into this statistics, but are listed separately below the table.
• Anatoly Karpov won another individual silver medal for overall performance rating. In total he won 3 gold and 1 silver individual medals.
• Garry Kasparov played his first four Olympiads for the Soviet Union, the rest for Russia. He won another four individual gold medals and one individual silver medal for overall performance rating. In total he won 7 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze individual medals.
• Paul Keres played his first three Olympiads for Estonia, the rest for the Soviet Union.

See also

• Correspondence Chess Olympiad
• European Chess Club Cup
• European Team Chess Championship
• Mind Sports Organisation
• Russia (USSR) vs Rest of the World
• Women's Chess Olympiad
• Women's World Chess Championship
• World Chess Championship
• World Mind Sports Games
• World Team Chess Championship

External links

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

Notes and References

1. https://web.archive.org/web/20041121043246/http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/fide.htm FIDE History
2. Web site: Code Signatories. World Anti-Doping Agency. 16 October 2017.
3. http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/4-tournaments/2760-1251-complete-fide-anti-doping-documents Complete FIDE Anti-Doping Documents
4. Web site: Chess WADA – Anti-Doping Policy, Nutrition and Health. AM. www.fide.com. 16 October 2017. 16 May 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210516005653/https://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/7189-chess-wada-anti-doping-policy-nutrition-and-health.html. dead.
5. https://web.archive.org/web/20080517071533/http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/drugslet.html Open letter from 50 players on drug testing (Web Archive)
6. Web site: Controversy over FIDE doping check. 27 October 2002. 16 October 2017.
7. Web site: Controversy over FIDE doping check. 27 October 2002. 16 October 2017.
8. Web site: Indian men beat U.S.. The Hindu. 2002-11-04. 16 October 2017.
9. News: Outrage Over Ivanchuk: The Great Chess Doping Scandal. Maik. Grossekathöfer. Der Spiegel. 11 December 2008. 16 October 2017. Spiegel Online.
10. Web site: Top Chess Blogs - Chess.com. Chess.com. 16 October 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20160310124931/http://www.chess.com/blog/billwall/drug-testing-and-chess. 2016-03-10. dead.
11. Web site: Decision of the FIDE Doping Hearing Panel (Miller). 16 October 2017.
12. Web site: Decision of the FIDE Doping Hearing Panel (Press). 16 October 2017.
13. Web site: Decision of the FIDE Doping Hearing Panel. www.fide.com. 16 October 2017. 23 January 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090123144930/http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/3704-decision-of-the-fide-doping-hearing-panel. dead.
14. https://www.fide.com/images/stories/NEWS_2011/fide_news/Annexes/Minutes_of_FIDE_GA_2010.pdf Minutes of 2010 FIDE General Assembly
15. Web site: ФИДЕ и ВАДА будут совместно выявлять допинг в шахматах. 24 November 2015. 16 October 2017.
16. http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/3005-fide-submitts-regulation-changes-for-chess-olympiad FIDE submits regulation changes for Chess Olympiad
17. News: Barden . Leonard . 10 August 2022 . Chess: Uzbekistan win Olympiad while David Howell takes performance gold . . 10 August 2022.
18. Web site: Abu Dhabi and FIDE Sign Agreement for 47th Chess Olympiad .