Chess Olympiad: A Comprehensive Guide

The Chess Olympiad is one of the most anticipated chess tournaments in the world. The International Chess Federation hosts the tournament every two years. Chess champions travel from around the world to one city to represent their country.

Here's a comprehensive guide to the Chess Olympiad.

The Chess Olympiad: How it Began

Paris hosted the first unofficial Chess Olympiad in 1924. The event occurred in the same year and at the same location as the Summer Olympics. The Olympiad actually began as an attempt to include chess in the Olympic Games, but it failed. In the end, it was too hard to tell the difference between amateur and professional players. 

This mattered at the time. Until the 1970s, the Olympics were only open to amateur athletes. 

FIDE was formed on the last day of the first unofficial Chess Olympiad. Then, in 1927, the first official Chess Olympiad took place. Fide tried to only allow amateurs to play in the hopes of making chess an Olympic Sport. Yet, nations with their own chess associations had different definitions of amateur. 

This led to top players ignoring the 1928 Olympiad.

Over time, FIDE shifted away from adhering to Olympic Games standards. The federation began consistently welcoming chess champions. Almost every World Chess Champion and contender has participated in the Olympiads. Steinitz did not because he died long before its start, and Lasker retired in 1927.

At first, the Olympiads were first held sporadically. FIDE has held them every two years since 1950. 

FIDE held the first-ever Women's Chess Olympiad in 1957. It took place at a different location from the open event. Twenty-two nations appeared at the first one. 

Women and Double Hosts

Skopje's 1972 Olympiads was the first time the open and women's sections were at the same location. Since 1976, all chess games for the open and women's sections have been held at one central location.

Only four cities have hosted official Chess Olympiads twice. They are Moscow, Istanbul, Thessaloniki, and Buenos Aires. 

Sometimes, certain countries weren't allowed to take part in FIDE Tournaments altogether. Countries' global conflicts resulted in their refusal to compete in chess games against each other.

For instance, Russia and Belarus were not at the 44th Olympiad because of the invasion of Ukraine.

Restricting Russian participation is especially noteworthy. The Soviet Union and modern Russia were both historic performers at the Olympiads.

Format of Olympiad Chess Tournament

Over time, we have arrived at a standard format for the Olympic-style chess tournament.

Every FIDE-recognized chess association can enter a team in the Chess Olympiad. Each team consists of five players, four regular players and one reserve. Before 2008's installment of the chess tournament, each team had two reserves. 

Initially, each team played all other teams in the tournament. Eventually, this grew impossible. Another change was that in earlier tournaments, team seeding took place before the competition. Teams played in preliminary groups and then finals. In 1976, a Swiss tournament system was adopted in its place. This would help combat the drawbacks of the seeding system. 

The winner of the Chess Olympiad is determined by the number of match points a team earns. The competition is 11 rounds in total. Teams play in four individual chess games in a round-robin format. Teams score 2 points for a match win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 for a loss. 

The Hamilton-Russell Cup is the open section's trophy. It was named after Frederick Hamilton-Russell, the English magnate who founded the trophy. The trophy for the women's team is the Vera Menchik Cup, named after the first Women's World Champion.

The Gaprindashvili Cup was named after the first-ever female Grandmaster Nona Graprindashvili. It goes to the team with the best combined result in the open and women's sections.

Historic Chess Champions of the Olympiads

Certain nations emerged as chess champions at the Olympiads. For instance, the former Soviet Union was the most successful team in history, with 18 gold medals. Of the countries that exist today, Russia is still tied with the US for the most Olympiad victories at 6.

The best individual performance in history was Alexander Alekhine. He achieved a perfect 9-0 on board one for France in 1930. IM Robert Gwaze tied this result with a 9-0 on board one for Zimbabwe in 2002. Mikhail Tal scored 82/101 (81.2%) over eight Olympiads, achieving the best overall score.

Tigran Petrosian, who represented the USSR, and later Georgia, earned the most medals. 

Judit Polgar is the only player to win Olympiad medals in both open and women's competitions. She earned two gold medals in the 1988 and 1990 Women's Olympiads and won two silver medals in 2002 and 2014. Her 2014 tournament was her last competitive chess tournament. She scored 4.5 out of 6 points.

The Indian Team Reigns as Chess Champions

The 45th Chess Olympiad took place in Budapest, Hungary, in September 2024. A record breaking 193 teams in the open section and 181 in the women's section participated.

For the first time ever, FIDE had a team of refugee chess players. This was in response to a request made by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 

Chess is a global game, and the focus of tournaments is often on nationality. Without a country to represent, refugees would not be able to access the Chess Olympiad, regardless of their abilities. This new team changed that.

Russia and Belarus were once again not allowed to take part in the event due to the invasion of Ukraine.

Indian Dominance

The Indian team was the winning team in the open section. The reigning world champion, GM Gukesh Dommaraju, led his team on first board. His team members were GM Arjun Erigaisi, IM Divya Deshmukh, and IM Vantika Agrawal. They won with 21 out of 22 match points, beating the record of 20 points set by the US and Ukraine in 2016.  Gukesh also won gold for individual performance in the open event. He achieved a stunning performance rating of 3056, with 9 out of 10 points. 

The United States earned silver, with 17 match points and Fabiano Caruana on first board. In bronze was Uzbekistan with 17 match points. 

India also took home gold for the women's section with 19 match points out of 21. In silver was Kazakhstan with 18 points. The United States of America came in bronze with 17 points. 

The Gaprindashvili Cup also went to the Indian team. And Indian players won a total of four gold medals on individual boards in both events.

India A New Chess Powerhouse

These were the first over-the-board Olympiad gold medals for the Indian teams. And earning double golds is incredibly rare. Before this, China was the only country to earn double golds since the Soviet Union broke up. They achieved the feat at the 2018 Olympiads.

It's worth noting that India lacked a robust chess culture until recent years. Much of the talent today was inspired by the rise of Viswanathan Anand. He became the 15th World Chess Champion and inspired a generation of players for his country.

Israeli player Dana Kochavi had the highest individual performance in the women's section. She won 8 of 8 games and had a performance rating of 2676.

46th Olympiad

The 46th Chess Olympiad will be held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. It's too early to know much, but one thing is sure: India is a serious contender.

We know the Indian team will be the one to beat. There is no doubt that India's players have been even more inspired to fight even harder. Now, Gukesh is their World Champion.

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