Women's Chess Olympiad Explained

The Women's Chess Olympiad is an event held by FIDE (the International Chess Federation) since 1957 (every two years since 1972), where national women's teams compete at chess for gold, silver and bronze medals. Since 1976 the Women's Chess Olympiad has been incorporated within Chess Olympiad events, with simultaneous women's and open tournaments.

The Soviet Union has won it the most often: 11 times. Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, China have won the event six times, Georgia – four times, Russia – three times and Ukraine – two times. It has also been won by Hungary led by three Polgár sisters (twice) and Israeli team fully composed of Soviet-born players (once in 1976 when it was boycotted by the Eastern Bloc).

Results

From 1957 to 1974 the Women's Olympiad was a separate event (with except of the 1972 event). Since 1976 it has been held in the same place and at the same time as the open event.

width=4%	Year !	width=21%	Event !	width=23%	Host !	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1957			10½ Olga Rubtsova Kira Zvorykina	Romania 10½ Maria Pogorevici Margareta Teodorescu	10 Edith Keller-Herrmann Ursula Altrichter
1963			25 Nona Gaprindashvili Tatiana Zatulovskaya Kira Zvorykina	24½ Milunka Lazarević Verica Nedeljković Katarina Jovanović-Blagojević	21 Edith Keller-Herrmann Waltraud Nowarra Eveline Kraatz
1966			22 Nona Gaprindashvili Valentina Kozlovskaya Tatiana Zatulovskaya	Romania 20½ Alexandra Nicolau Elisabeta Polihroniade Margareta Perevoznic	17 Edith Keller-Herrmann Waltraud Nowarra Gabriele Just
1969			26 Nona Gaprindashvili Alla Kushnir Nana Alexandria	Hungary 20½ Mária Ivánka Zsuzsa Verőci Károlyné Honfi	19 Štěpánka Vokřálová Květa Eretová Jana Malypetrová
1972			11½ Nona Gaprindashvili Alla Kushnir Irina Levitina	Romania 8 Elisabeta Polihroniade Gertrude Baumstark Alexandra Nicolau	Hungary 8 Mária Ivánka Zsuzsa Verőci Gyuláné Krizsán-Bilek
1974			13½ Nona Gaprindashvili Nana Alexandria Irina Levitina	Romania 13½ Elisabeta Polihroniade Gertrude Baumstark Margareta Teodorescu	13 Tatjana Lematschko Antonina Georgieva Venka Asenova
1976	22nd Chess Olympiad *		Israel 17 Alla Kushnir Ljuba Kristol Olga Podrazhanskaya Lea Nudelman	11½ Jana Hartston Sheila Jackson Elaine Pritchard Susan Caldwell	Spain 11½ Pepita Ferrer Lucas Nieves García Vicente María del Pino García Padrón Teresa Canela Giménez
1978			16 Maia Chiburdanidze Nona Gaprindashvili Nana Alexandria Elena Akhmilovskaya	Hungary 11 Zsuzsa Verőci-Petronić Mária Ivánka Zsuzsa Makai Rita Kas	11 Anni Laakmann Gisela Fischdick Barbara Hund Hannelore Weichert
1980			32½ Maia Chiburdanidze Nona Gaprindashvili Nana Alexandria Nana Ioseliani	Hungary 32 Zsuzsa Verőci-Petronić Mária Ivánka Mária Porubszky-Angyalosine Tünde Csonkics	Poland 26½ Hanna Ereńska-Radzewska Grażyna Szmacińska Małgorzata Wiese Agnieszka Brustman
1982			33 Maia Chiburdanidze Nana Alexandria Nona Gaprindashvili Nana Ioseliani	Romania 30 Margareta Mureșan Marina Pogorevici Daniela Nuţu-Terescenko Elisabeta Polihroniade	Hungary 26 Zsuzsa Verőci-Petronić Mária Ivánka Mária Porubszky-Angyalosine Tünde Csonkics
1984			32 Maia Chiburdanidze Irina Levitina Nona Gaprindashvili Lidia Semenova	27½ Margarita Voyska Rumiana Gocheva Pavlina Chilingirova Stefka Savova	Romania 27 Margareta Mureșan Elisabeta Polihroniade Daniela Nuţu Gabriela Olărașu
1986			33½ Maia Chiburdanidze Elena Akhmilovskaya Nona Gaprindashvili Nana Alexandria	Hungary 29 Zsuzsa Verőci-Petronić Ildikó Mádl Mária Ivánka Mária Grosch	Romania 28 Margareta Mureșan Daniela Nuţu Elisabeta Polihroniade Gabriela Olărașu
1988			Hungary 33 Zsuzsa Polgár Judit Polgár Ildikó Mádl Zsófia Polgár	32½ Maia Chiburdanidze Elena Akhmilovskaya Irina Levitina Marta Litinskaya	28 Alisa Marić Gordana Marković Suzana Maksimović Vesna Bašagić
1990			Hungary 35 Zsuzsa Polgár Judit Polgár Zsófia Polgár Ildikó Mádl	35 Maia Chiburdanidze Nona Gaprindashvili Alisa Galliamova Ketevan Arakhamia	China 29 Xie Jun Peng Zhaoqin Qin Kanying Wang Lei
1992			Georgia 30½ Maia Chiburdanidze Nona Gaprindashvili Nana Ioseliani Nino Gurieli	Ukraine 29 Alisa Galliamova-Ivanchuk Marta Litinskaya Irina Chelushkina Lidia Semenova	China 28½ Xie Jun Peng Zhaoqin Wang Pin Qin Kanying
1994			Georgia 32 Maia Chiburdanidze Nana Ioseliani Ketevan Arakhamia Nino Gurieli	Hungary 31 Zsuzsa Polgár Zsófia Polgár Ildikó Mádl Tünde Csonkics	China 27 Xie Jun Peng Zhaoqin Qin Kanying Zhu Chen
1996			Georgia 30 Maia Chiburdanidze Nana Ioseliani Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant Nino Gurieli	China 28½ Xie Jun Zhu Chen Wang Lei Wang Pin	28½ Alisa Galliamova Svetlana Matveeva Svetlana Prudnikova Ludmila Zaitseva
1998			China 29 Xie Jun Zhu Chen Wang Pin Wang Lei	27 Svetlana Matveeva Ekaterina Kovalevskaya Tatiana Shumiakina Tatiana Stepovaya-Dianchenko	Georgia 27 Maia Chiburdanidze Nana Ioseliani Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant Nino Khurtsidze
2000			China 32 Xie Jun Zhu Chen Xu Yuhua Wang Lei	Georgia 31 Maia Chiburdanidze Nana Ioseliani Nino Khurtsidze Nino Gurieli	28½ Alisa Galliamova Ekaterina Kovalevskaya Svetlana Matveeva Tatiana Stepovaya-Dianchenko
2002			China 29½ Zhu Chen Xu Yuhua Wang Pin Zhao Xue	29 Ekaterina Kovalevskaya Svetlana Matveeva Alexandra Kosteniuk Tatiana Kosintseva	Poland 28 Iweta Radziewicz Joanna Dworakowska Monika Soćko Beata Kądziołka
2004			China 31 Xie Jun Xu Yuhua Zhao Xue Huang Qian	United States 28 Susan Polgar Irina Krush Anna Zatonskih Jennifer Shahade	27½ Alexandra Kosteniuk Tatiana Kosintseva Ekaterina Kovalevskaya Nadezhda Kosintseva
2006			Ukraine 29½ Natalia Zhukova Kateryna Lahno Inna Gaponenko Anna Ushenina	28 Alexandra Kosteniuk Tatiana Kosintseva Nadezhda Kosintseva Ekaterina Kovalevskaya	China 27½ Zhao Xue Wang Yu Shen Yang Hou Yifan
2008			Georgia 18 Maia Chiburdanidze Nana Dzagnidze Lela Javakhishvili Maia Lomineishvili Sopiko Khukhashvili	Ukraine 18 Kateryna Lahno Natalia Zhukova Anna Ushenina Inna Gaponenko Natalia Zdebskaya	United States 17 Irina Krush Anna Zatonskih Rusudan Goletiani Katerina Rohonyan Tatev Abrahamyan
2010			22 Tatiana Kosintseva Nadezhda Kosintseva Alexandra Kosteniuk Alisa Galliamova Valentina Gunina	China 18 Hou Yifan Ju Wenjun Zhao Xue Huang Qian Wang Yu	Georgia 16 Nana Dzagnidze Lela Javakhishvili Salome Melia Sopiko Khukhashvili Bela Khotenashvili
2012			19 Tatiana Kosintseva Valentina Gunina Nadezhda Kosintseva Alexandra Kosteniuk Natalia Pogonina	China 19 Hou Yifan Zhao Xue Ju Wenjun Huang Qian Ding Yixin	Ukraine 18 Kateryna Lahno Mariya Muzychuk Natalia Zhukova Anna Ushenina Inna Gaponenko
2014			20 Kateryna Lagno Valentina Gunina Alexandra Kosteniuk Olga Girya Natalia Pogonina	China 18 Hou Yifan Ju Wenjun Zhao Xue Tan Zhongyi Guo Qi	Ukraine 18 Anna Muzychuk Mariya Muzychuk Anna Ushenina Natalia Zhukova Inna Gaponenko
2016			China 20 Hou Yifan Ju Wenjun Zhao Xue Tan Zhongyi Guo Qi	Poland 17 Monika Soćko Jolanta Zawadzka Karina Szczepkowska-Horowska Klaudia Kulon Mariola Woźniak	Ukraine 17 Anna Muzychuk Mariya Muzychuk Natalia Zhukova Anna Ushenina Inna Gaponenko
2018			China 18 Ju Wenjun Shen Yang Huang Qian Lei Tingjie Zhai Mo	Ukraine 18 Anna Muzychuk Mariya Muzychuk Anna Ushenina Natalia Zhukova Yuliia Osmak	Georgia 17 Nana Dzagnidze Lela Javakhishvili Nino Batsiashvili Bela Khotenashvili Meri Arabidze
2022			Ukraine 18 Mariya Muzychuk Anna Muzychuk Anna Ushenina Nataliya Buksa Yuliia Osmak	Georgia 18 Nana Dzagnidze Nino Batsiashvili Lela Javakhishvili Salome Melia Meri Arabidze	India 17 Koneru Humpy Harika Dronavalli Rameshbabu Vaishali Tania Sachdev Bhakti Kulkarni
2024	45th Chess Olympiad	Budapest, Hungary
2026	46th Chess Olympiad	Uzbekistan

* In 1976 the Soviet Union and other Socialist states did not compete for political reasons.

Total team ranking

The table contains the women's 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.

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	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1		1963	1992	11	1	–	12
2		1978	2008	9	3	1	13
3		1969	1986	6	–	–	6
4		1980	2000	5	1	1	7
5	Zhao Xue	2002	2016	3	3	1	7
6	Alexandra Kosteniuk	2002	2014	3	2	1	6
7		1990	2004	3	1	3	7
8		1994	2002	3	1	1	5
9		1992	2000	3	1	–	4
9		1972	1988	3	1	–	4

Multiple team medalists

The table shows players who have won at least 6 team medals in total at the Chess Olympiads.

Rank	Player	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1		1978	2008	9	3	1	13
2		1963	1992	11	1	–	12
3		1980	2000	5	1	1	7
4	Zhao Xue	2002	2016	3	3	1	7
5		1990	2004	3	1	3	7
6	Anna Ushenina	2006	2022	2	2	3	7
7		1969	1986	6	–	–	6
8	Alexandra Kosteniuk	2002	2014	3	2	1	6
9	Natalia Zhukova	2006	2018	1	2	3	6
10		1969	1986	–	4	2	6
		1966	1986	–	4	2	6
		1969	1986	–	4	2	6

Best individual results in the women's section

The best individual results in order of overall percentage are:

Rank	Country	Ol.	Gms.	+	=	–	%	Individual medals	Number of ind. medals	Team medals	Number of team medals
1	(11) Georgia (1)	12	128	94	26	8	83.6	8 – 3 – 0	11	11 – 1 – 0	12
2		5	51	36	13	2	83.3	4 – 0 – 0	4	2 – 1 – 1	4
3		9	107	71	33	3	81.8	3 – 2 – 2	7	0 – 0 – 0	0
4		4	48	32	13	3	80.2	2 – 0 – 1	3	2 – 1 – 0	3
5	(1) Georgia (4) (3)	8	86	58	19	9	78.5	2 – 0 – 1	3	2 – 1 – 1	4
6		4	32	21	8	3	78.1	1 – 0 – 0	1	2 – 1 – 1	4
7	Hungary (3) United States (1)	4	56	31	25	0	77.7	1 – 2 – 1	4	2 – 2 – 0	4
8		5	46	27	16	3	76.1	2 – 0 – 0	2	3 – 0 – 0	3
9		6	54	35	12	7	75.9	4 – 0 – 0	4	6 – 0 – 0	6
10	(1) Ukraine (1) (3)	5	57	39	8	10	75.4	0 – 2 – 0	2	1 – 2 – 2	5
11		8	81	49	24	8	75.3	3 – 0 – 0	3	3 – 3 – 1	7
12	(7) Georgia (8)	15	167	89	73	5	75.1	4 – 2 – 3	9	9 – 3 – 1	13
13		5	48	31	10	7	75.0	1 – 2 – 0	3	0 – 0 – 0	0
14		6	61	34	23	4	74.6	1 – 3 – 2	6	1 – 3 – 1	5
15	(2) Georgia (6)	8	88	49	32	7	73.9	2 – 2 – 1	5	5 – 1 – 1	7
16		5	59	34	19	6	73.7	2 – 1 – 0	3	3 – 1 – 1	5
17		5	45	27	12	6	73.3	1 – 1 – 0	2	0 – 1 – 1	2
18		10	118	62	48	8	72.9	0 – 3 – 2	5	0 – 4 – 2	6
19		4	40	22	14	4	72.5	0 – 0 – 0	0	0 – 0 – 0	0
20		4	49	26	19	4	72.4	0 – 1 – 1	2	0 – 0 – 3	3

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.
Nona Gaprindashvili played eleven Olympiads for the Soviet Union, and one for Georgia. She won another one individual gold medal and one individual bronze medal for overall performance rating. In total she won 9 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze individual medals.
Pia Cramling won another one individual silver medal and one individual bronze medal for overall performance rating. In total she won 3 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze individual medals.
Zsófia Polgár won another one individual gold medal for overall performance rating. In total she won 3 gold and 1 bronze individual medals.
Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant played her first Olympiad for the Soviet Union, then four for Georgia and three for Scotland. She won another one individual gold medal and one individual bronze medal for overall performance rating. In total she won 3 gold and 2 bronze individual medals.
Wang Lei won another one individual gold medal for overall performance rating. In total she won 2 individual gold medals.
Zsuzsa Polgár played three Olympiads for Hungary, and one for the United States (as Susan Polgar). She won another one individual gold medal and two individual bronze medals for overall performance rating. In total she won 2 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze individual medals.
Alisa Galliamova played her first Olympiad for the Soviet Union, then one for Ukraine (as Galliamova-Ivanchuk) and three for Russia. She won another two individual silver medals for overall performance rating. In total she won 4 individual silver medals.
Zhao Xue won another two individual gold medals and one individual bronze medal for overall performance rating. In total she won 5 gold and 1 bronze individual medals.
Maia Chiburdanidze played her first seven Olympiads for the Soviet Union, the rest for Georgia. She won another one individual gold medal and three individual bronze medals for overall performance rating. In total she won 5 gold, 2 silver and 6 bronze individual medals.
Hou Yifan won another one individual bronze medal for overall performance rating. In total she won 1 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze individual medals.
Nana Ioseliani played her first two Olympiads for the Soviet Union, the rest for Georgia. She won another one individual silver medal and one individual bronze medal for overall performance rating. In total she won 2 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze individual medals.
Zhu Chen won another two individual gold medals for overall performance rating. In total she won 4 gold and 1 silver individual medals.

External links

http://www.olimpbase.org/index.html?http%3A%2F%2Fwww.olimpbase.org%2Folympiads%2Fwomen_results.html