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.
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. FIDE adheres to their rules, including a requirement for doping tests, which they are obligated to take at the events such as the Olympiad. The tests were first introduced in 2002 under significant controversy, 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. 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". Jan Timman and Robert Hübner 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. However, in the 36th Chess Olympiad in 2004, two players refused to provide urine samples and had their scores cancelled. Four years later, Vasyl Ivanchuk was not penalized for skipping a drug test at the 38th Chess Olympiad in 2008, with a procedural error being indicated instead.
In 2010, a FIDE official commented that due to the work of the FIDE Medical Commission, the tests were now considered routine. In November 2015, FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov announced they are working with WADA to define and identify doping in chess.
Competition
Each FIDE-recognized chess association can enter a team into the Olympiad.). || || ||
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| 2028 || 47th Chess Olympiad || Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates || || ||
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<nowiki>*</nowiki> In 1976, the , other Communist countries and Arabic countries did not compete for political reasons. <br />
<sup>†</sup> FIDE organized the online olympiads in 2020 and 2021 following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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<sup>‡</sup> 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.
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<sup>§</sup> 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 would be shifted to Chennai, India.
Gaprindashvili Cup
This trophy was created by FIDE in 1997 and named after Nona Gaprindashvili, the former women's World Champion (1962–1978). The trophy is awarded to the team that has the best overall performance across the open and women's divisions.
Russia won this trophy six times, China – three times, India and Ukraine – two times each.
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Medal tables
Open event
right|thumb|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 online or unofficial events), ranked by the number of first-place medals, ties broken by second-place medals, etc.
<!--- Please DO NOT add the results from the Online Chess Olympiad. The motivations are provided in the talk page. --->
Open and Women's events
The table contains teams ranked by total number of medals won at the Chess Olympiad (not including the online or unofficial events) in the Open event (since 1927) and Women's event (since 1957), ranked by the number of first-place medals, ties broken by second-place medals, etc.
<!--- Please DO NOT add the results from the Online Chess Olympiad. The motivations are provided in the talk page. --->
Most successful players in the open section
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
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" width=80% style="text-align:center;"
|- style="background-color:#EDEDED;"
! class="hintergrundfarbe5" style="width:1em" | Rank
! class="hintergrundfarbe5" | Player
! class="hintergrundfarbe5" | Country
! class="hintergrundfarbe5" | From
! class="hintergrundfarbe5" | To
! style="background: gold; width:8%" | Gold
! style="background: silver; width:8%" | Silver
! style="background: #CC9966; width:8%" | Bronze
! class="hintergrundfarbe5" style="width:8%" |Total
|-
| 1 || align="left" | Tigran Petrosian || align="left" | || 1958 || 1978 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | 9 || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | 1 || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | – || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 10
|-align="center"
| 2 || align="left" | Vasily Smyslov || align="left" | || 1952 || 1972 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | 9 || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | – || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | – || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 9
|-align="center"
|rowspan="2"| 3 || align="left" | Garry Kasparov || align="left" | <br /> || 1980 || 2002 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | 8 || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | – || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | – || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 8
|-align="center"
| align="left" | Mikhail Tal || align="left" | || 1958 || 1982 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | 8 || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | – || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | – || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 8
|-align="center"
| 5 || align="left" | Paul Keres || align="left" | <br /> || 1939 || 1964 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | 7 || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | – || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | 1 || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 8
|-align="center"
| 6 || align="left" | Efim Geller || align="left" | || 1952 || 1980 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | 7 || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | – || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | – || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 7
|-align="center"
|rowspan="2"| 7 || align="left" | Lev Polugaevsky || align="left" | || 1966 || 1984 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | 6 || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | 1 || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | – || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 7
|-align="center"
| align="left" | Boris Spassky || align="left" | || 1962 || 1978 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | 6 || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | 1 || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | – || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 7
|-align="center"
|rowspan="3"| 9 || align="left" | Mikhail Botvinnik || align="left" | || 1954 || 1964 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | 6 || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | – || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | – || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 6
|-align="center"
| align="left" | Anatoly Karpov || align="left" | || 1972 || 1988 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | 6 || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | – || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | – || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 6
|-align="center"
| align="left" | Viktor Korchnoi || align="left" | || 1960 || 1974 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | 6 || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | – || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | – || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 6
|}
Multiple team medalists
The table shows players who have won at least 7 team medals in total at the Chess Olympiads.
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" width=80% style="text-align:center;"
|- style="background-color:#EDEDED;"
! class="hintergrundfarbe5" style="width:1em" | Rank
! class="hintergrundfarbe5" | Player
! class="hintergrundfarbe5" | Country
! class="hintergrundfarbe5" | From
! class="hintergrundfarbe5" | To
! style="background: gold; width:8%" | Gold
! style="background: silver; width:8%" | Silver
! style="background: #CC9966; width:8%" | Bronze
! class="hintergrundfarbe5" style="width:8%" |Total
|-
| 1 || align="left" | Svetozar Gligorić || align="left" | || 1950 || 1974 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | 1 || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | 6 || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | 5 || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 12
|-align="center"
| 2 || align="left" | Tigran Petrosian || align="left" | || 1958 || 1978 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | 9 || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | 1 || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | – || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 10
|-align="center"
| 3 || align="left" | Borislav Ivkov || align="left" | || 1956 || 1980 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | – || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | 6 || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | 4 || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 10
|-align="center"
| 4 || align="left" | Vasily Smyslov || align="left" | || 1952 || 1972 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | 9 || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | – || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | – || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 9
|-align="center"
| 5 || align="left" | Aleksandar Matanović || align="left" | || 1954 || 1972 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | – || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | 5 || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | 4 || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 9
|-align="center"
|rowspan="2"| 6 || align="left" | Garry Kasparov || align="left" | <br /> || 1980 || 2002 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | 8 || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | – || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | – || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 8
|-align="center"
| align="left" | Mikhail Tal || align="left" | || 1958 || 1982 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | 8 || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | – || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | – || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 8
|-align="center"
| 8 || align="left" | Paul Keres || align="left" | <br /> || 1939 || 1964 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | 7 || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | – || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | 1 || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 8
|-align="center"
| 9 || align="left" | Vassily (Vasyl) Ivanchuk || align="left" | <br /> || 1988 || 2012 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | 4 || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | 1 || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | 3 || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 8
|-align="center"
| 10 || align="left" | Efim Geller || align="left" | || 1952 || 1980 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | 7 || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | – || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | – || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 7
|-align="center"
|rowspan="2"| 11 || align="left" | Lev Polugaevsky || align="left" | || 1966 || 1984 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | 6 || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | 1 || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | – || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 7
|-align="center"
| align="left" | Boris Spassky || align="left" | || 1962 || 1978 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | 6 || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | 1 || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | – || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 7
|-align="center"
| 13 || align="left" | Peter Svidler || align="left" | || 1994 || 2010 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | 5 || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | 2 || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | – || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 7
|-align="center"
| 14 || align="left" | Vladimir Kramnik || align="left" | || 1992 || 2018 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | 3 || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | 2 || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | 2 || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 7
|-align="center"
| 15 || align="left" | Mieczysław (Miguel) Najdorf || align="left" | <br /> || 1935 || 1962 || bgcolor="#F7F6A8" | – || bgcolor="#DCE5E5" | 4 || bgcolor="#FFDAB9" | 3 || bgcolor="#E7FAEC" | 7
|}
Best individual results in the open section
The best individual results in order of overall percentage are:
<br />
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:left;"
! Rank<br /> !! Player !! Country !! Ol. !! Gms. !!class="unsortable" | + !! class="unsortable" | = !! class="unsortable" | – !! % !! class="unsortable" | Individual <br />medals !! Number of<br />ind. medals !! class="unsortable" | Team medals !! Number of<br />team medals
|-
| 1 || || ||style="text-align:center"|8 || style="text-align:center"|101 || 65 || 34 || 2 || style="text-align:center"|81.2 || style="text-align:center"|5 – 2 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|7 || style="text-align:center"|8 – 0 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|8
|-
| 2 || || ||style="text-align:center"| 6 || style="text-align:center"|68 || 43 || 23 || 2 || style="text-align:center"|80.1 || style="text-align:center"|3 – 0 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|3 || style="text-align:center"|6 – 0 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|6
|-
| 3 || || ||style="text-align:center"|10|| style="text-align:center"|129 || 78 || 50 || 1 || style="text-align:center"|79.8 || style="text-align:center"|6 – 0 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|6 || style="text-align:center"|9 – 1 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|10
|-
| 4 || || ||style="text-align:center"| 5 || style="text-align:center"|79 || 52 || 22 || 5 || style="text-align:center"|79.7 || style="text-align:center"|2 – 1 – 2 || style="text-align:center"|5|| style="text-align:center"|3 – 1 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|4
|-
| 5 || || ||style="text-align:center"| 9 || style="text-align:center"|113 || 69 || 42 || 2 || style="text-align:center"|79.6 || style="text-align:center"|4 – 2 – 2 || style="text-align:center"|8|| style="text-align:center"|9 – 0 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|9
|-
| 6 || || ||style="text-align:center"| 4 || style="text-align:center"|49 || 30 || 18 || 1 || style="text-align:center"|79.6 || style="text-align:center"|3 – 1 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|4|| style="text-align:center"|4 – 0 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|4
|-
| 7 || || (4)<br /> (4) ||style="text-align:center"| 8 || style="text-align:center"|82 || 50 || 29 || 3 || style="text-align:center"|78.7 || style="text-align:center"|3 – 1 – 2 || style="text-align:center"|6|| style="text-align:center"|8 – 0 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|8
|-
| 8 || || ||style="text-align:center"| 5|| style="text-align:center"|72 || 43 || 27 || 2 || style="text-align:center"|78.5 || style="text-align:center"|2 – 2 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|4|| style="text-align:center"|0 – 0 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|0
|-
| 9 || || ||style="text-align:center"|5 || style="text-align:center"|78 || 46 || 28 || 4 || style="text-align:center"|76.9 || style="text-align:center"|1 – 2 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|3|| style="text-align:center"|0 – 2 – 2 || style="text-align:center"|4
|-
|10 || || (3)<br /> (7) ||style="text-align:center"| 10|| style="text-align:center"|141 || 85 || 44 || 12 || style="text-align:center"|75.9 || style="text-align:center"|5 – 1 – 1 || style="text-align:center"|7|| style="text-align:center"|7 – 0 – 1 || style="text-align:center"|8
|-
|11 || || ||style="text-align:center"| 7|| style="text-align:center"|76 || 46 || 23 || 7 || style="text-align:center"|75.7 || style="text-align:center"|3 – 3 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|6|| style="text-align:center"|7 – 0 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|7
|-
|12= || || ||style="text-align:center"|4|| style="text-align:center"|51 || 29 || 19 || 3 || style="text-align:center"|75.5 || style="text-align:center"|2 – 0 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|2|| style="text-align:center"|3 – 0 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|3
|-
|12= || || ||style="text-align:center"|5|| style="text-align:center"|51 || 32 || 13 || 6 || style="text-align:center"|75.5 || style="text-align:center"|2 – 0 – 1 || style="text-align:center"|3|| style="text-align:center"|1 – 0 – 3 || style="text-align:center"|4
|-
|14 || || ||style="text-align:center"| 4 || style="text-align:center"|65 || 40 || 18 || 7 || style="text-align:center"|75.4 || style="text-align:center"|0 – 2 – 1 || style="text-align:center"|3|| style="text-align:center"|0 – 2 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|2
|-
|15 || || ||style="text-align:center"| 4 || style="text-align:center"|38 || 20 || 17 || 1 || style="text-align:center"|75.0 || style="text-align:center"|0 – 2 – 2 || style="text-align:center"|4|| style="text-align:center"|0 – 0 – 2 || style="text-align:center"|2
|-
|16 || || ||style="text-align:center"|6 || style="text-align:center"|73 || 39 || 31 || 3 || style="text-align:center"|74.7 || style="text-align:center"|2 – 1 – 2 || style="text-align:center"|5 || style="text-align:center"|6 – 0 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|6
|-
|17 || || ||style="text-align:center"|4 || style="text-align:center"|37 || 23 || 9 || 5 || style="text-align:center"|74.3 || style="text-align:center"|0 – 1 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|1 || style="text-align:center"|0 – 0 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|0
|-
|18 || || ||style="text-align:center"|4 || style="text-align:center"|35 || 20 || 12 || 3 || style="text-align:center"|74.3 || style="text-align:center"|1 – 0 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|1 || style="text-align:center"|1 – 1 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|2
|-
|19 || Yu Yangyi || ||style="text-align:center"|4 || style="text-align:center"|42 || 22 || 18 || 2 || style="text-align:center"|73.8 || style="text-align:center"|1 – 1 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|2 || style="text-align:center"|2 – 0 – 0 || style="text-align:center"|2
|-
|20 || || || style="text-align:center"|5 || style="text-align:center"|82 || 46 || 28 || 8 || style="text-align:center"|73.2 || style="text-align:center"|2 – 1 – 1 || style="text-align:center"|4 || style="text-align:center"|0 – 1 – 1 || style="text-align:center"|2
|}
thumb|Fischer and Tal at the 1960 Olympiad
;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
- World Amateur Chess Championship
- Correspondence Chess Olympiad
- European Chess Club Cup
- European Team Chess Championship
- Mind Sports Organisation
- USSR and Russia versus the Rest of the World
- Women's Chess Olympiad
- Women's World Chess Championship
- World Chess Championship
- World Mind Sports Games
- World Team Chess Championship
References
External links
- FIDE Handbook: Chess Olympiads
- OlimpBase: Chess Olympiads
- Student Chess Olympiad - World Student Team Chess Championship