Men's Chess Olympiads Trivia
1927 — 2010 
If you know more
interesting trivia or you think we could extricate something more from our data then please us an e-mail.
Miscellanea
* The oldest and the youngest Olympian. The youngest Olympian so far is Ho Meng Wei of Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), who played his debut Olympiad game at 7 years, 11 months and 12 days in 2008 (sadly, he lost all of his games). Andrew Scherman (later chairman of Florida CA) and John Jarecki, both of Virgin Islands, were both 11 as they entered the Olympic tournament, in 1970 and 1980 respectively (the latter exactly 11 years, 11 months and 19 days). The oldest player ever to sit over the board was the great Bill Hook of (yes!) British Virgin Islands, who was 83 years, 4 months and 26 days old as he played (and won) his last Olympiad game vs Cresswell of, LOL, US Virgin Islands, in Dresden in November 2008. Bill sadly passed away in May 2010 and the record will probably stay for many years.
* Number of teams and players participating. A total of 196 teams participated, including 169 national teams, 24 reserve teams and three teams of the handicapped players: IBCA (The Blind), IPCA (The Disabled) and ICSC (The Deaf). OlimpBase database has 5706 individual records for 1927-2008 period yet due to possible spelling problems this figure is probably overrated.
* Celebrities. Marcel Duchamp who was an avid chess player and represented France in late 30's, but he is primarly known as famous painter. GM Utut Adianto later became member of parlament of the Republic of Indonesia (just 560 members in a country of 237 million people!).
* World Champions. Virtually all of the World Champions (everyone but Steinitz who died in 1900 and Lasker
who was already retired in 1927) took part at the Olympiads. However not all of them appeared as the reigning champions.
Here's the concise Olympiad list together with World Champions notes:
| Olympiad |
World Champion |
Country |
Result |
Remarks |
| 1927 London
| José Raúl Capablanca
| Cuba
| ---
| Cuba did not participate
|
| 1928 The Hague
| Alexander Alekhine
| France
| ---
| professionals couldn't participate
|
| 1930 Hamburg
| Alexander Alekhine
| France
| 12th, +9 =0 -0
| did not play toughest opposition
|
| 1931 Prague
| Alexander Alekhine
| France
| 14th, +10 =7 -1
| lost to Matisons
|
| 1933 Folkestone
| Alexander Alekhine
| France
| 8th, +8 =3 -1
| lost to Tartakower
|
| 1935 Warsaw
| Alexander Alekhine
| France
| 10th, +7 =10 -0
|
|
| 1937 Stockholm
| Machgielis Euwe
| Holland
| 6th, +8 =3 -2
| lost to Gauffin and Lilienthal (famous blunder)
|
| 1939 Buenos Aires
| Alexander Alekhine
| France
| 10th, +9 =7 -0
|
|
| 1935 Warsaw
| Alexander Alekhine
| France
| 10th, +7 =10 -0
|
|
| 1950 Dubrovnik
| Mikhail Botvinnik
| USSR
| ---
| Soviet Union did not participate
|
| 1952 Helsinki
| Mikhail Botvinnik
| USSR
| ---
| Botvinnik was not in the team. True reasons for that stay unclear, yet allegedly he did too badly in USSR 1951 Championship to qualify for the team.
|
| 1954 Amsterdam
| Mikhail Botvinnik
| USSR
| 1st, +6 =5 -0
|
|
| 1956 Moscow
| Mikhail Botvinnik
| USSR
| 1st, +6 =7 -0
|
|
| 1958 Munich
| Mikhail Botvinnik
| USSR
| 1st, +7 =4 -1
| lost to Dückstein; Smyslov won and lost WCh Trophy meanwhile
|
| 1960 Leipzig
| Mikhail Tal
| USSR
| 1st, +8 =6 -1
| lost to Penrose
|
| 1962 Varna
| Mikhail Botvinnik
| USSR
| 1st, +5 =6 -1
| lost to Uhlmann
|
| 1964 Tel Aviv
| Tigran Petrosian
| USSR
| 1st, +6 =7 -0
|
|
| 1966 Havana
| Tigran Petrosian
| USSR
| 1st, +10 =3 -0
|
|
| 1968 Lugano
| Tigran Petrosian
| USSR
| 1st, +9 =3 -0
|
|
| 1970 Siegen
| Boris Spassky
| USSR
| 1st, +7 =5 -0
|
|
| 1972 Skopje
| Robert James Fischer
| USA
| ---
| quit professional chess
|
| 1974 Nice
| Robert James Fischer
| USA
| ---
| quit professional chess
|
| 1976 Haifa
| Anatoly Karpov
| USSR
| ---
| Soviet Union did not participate
|
| 1978 Buenos Aires
| Anatoly Karpov
| USSR
| ---
| involved in a WCh match vs Korchnoi
|
| 1980 La Valletta
| Anatoly Karpov
| USSR
| 1st, +6 =6 -0
|
|
| 1982 Lucerne
| Anatoly Karpov
| USSR
| 1st, +5 =3 -0
|
|
| 1984 Thessaloniki
| Anatoly Karpov
| USSR
| ---
| involved in a WCh match vs Kasparov
|
| 1986 Dubai
| Garry Kasparov
| USSR
| 1st, +7 =3 -1
| lost to Seirawan
|
| 1988 Thessaloniki
| Garry Kasparov
| USSR
| 1st, +7 =3 -0
|
|
| 1990 Novi Sad
| Garry Kasparov
| USSR
| ---
| involved in a WCh match vs Karpov
|
| 1992 Manila
| Garry Kasparov
| Russia
| 1st, +7 =3 -0
|
|
| 1994 Moscow
| PCA: Garry Kasparov
FIDE: Anatoly Karpov
| Russia
Russia
| 1st, +4 =5 -1
---
| GK: lost to Topalov
AK: conflicted with Russian Chess Federation
|
| 1996 Yerevan
| PCA: Garry Kasparov
FIDE: Anatoly Karpov
| Russia
Russia
| 1st, +5 =4 -0
---
| AK: conflicted with Russian Chess Federation
|
| 1998 Elista
| PCA: Garry Kasparov
FIDE: Anatoly Karpov
| Russia
Russia
| ---
---
| GK: unknown reasons for absention
AK: conflicted with Russian Chess Federation
|
| 2000 Istanbul
| PCA: Kasparov
FIDE: Khalifman
| Russia
Russia
| ---
1st, +2 =5 -2
| GK: unknown reasons for absention
AK: lost to Leko and Topalov
|
| 2002 Bled
| Braingames: Kramnik
FIDE: Ponomariov
| Russia
Ukraine
| ---
14th, +3 = 6 -2
| VK: unknown reasons for absention
RP: lost to Akopian and Georgiev
|
| 2004 Calvia
| Dannemann: Kramnik
FIDE: Kasimdzhanov
| Russia
Uzbekistan
| ---
14th, +4 =4 -0
| VK: involved in a WCh match vs Leko
|
| 2006 Turin |
Veselin Topalov |
Bulgaria |
--- |
too tired |
| 2008 Dresden |
Viswanathan Anand |
India |
--- |
preparing to WCh match |
| 2010 Khanty Mansiysk |
Viswanathan Anand |
India |
--- |
decided to skip due to unfriendly format |
Game Trivia
* Shortest games. There is number of brisk draws in the Olympic scoresheets. For sake of your nerves we
will NOT list all of those games. Just not to left the field blank we are obliged to report you that the shortest
game ever played at the Olympiads was played in Calvia and lasted for 3 halfmoves! 1.e4 c6 2.d4 drawn... The
holders of this shameful record are GM Fedorov of Belarus and GM Kachieshvili of Georgia (round 11).
On the other hand you will certainly be very keen to see the shortest decisive games played in the history the Olympiads. Here we go with top 20:
* Uncommon openings:
- 1. Nh3. The Dekker opening? The player from Netherlands Antilles Marvin Dekker brought into life this
unusual move. He played it twice in Calvia in 2004 and once in 2010. Did it prove successful? Judge yourself: Dekker-Berlinsky 0-1, Dekker-Jodorcovsky ½-½ and Dekker-Ndikumana 1-0.
- 1. h3. This appeared twice in the history of the Olympiads and the development plan for White seems interesting at first
glance. Faye-Khonji 0-1, Dubai 1986 and Husari-Silveirinha 1-0, Yerevan 1996.
- 1. c3. Australian GM Ian Rogers played is as much as four times scoring 1/4. Two games below offer most intriguing way of development for White:
Rogers-Grünfeld 1-0, Lucerne 1982 and Rogers-Helmers 0-1, Lucerne 1982.
- 1. e4 e5 2. a3. This wouldn't be that interesting perhaps unless it was played in a game that could be decisive about the medals! Wahls-Piket ½-½, Novi Sad 1990.
- 1. e4 e5 2. Bb5 This undersetimated opening is called 'The Portuguese Opening' and surprisingly occurred only once at the Olympiads. The White player was a Portuguese, of course. Damaso-Tisdall 0-1, Manila 1992.
- 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d5 The Elephant Gambit. This is a trademark of Barbadosi master Philip Corbin who played it as much as 9 times at the Olympiads! Watch his best game: Sakelsek-Corbin 0-1, Calvia 2004.
- 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Qe7 That's what Rashid Khouseinov from Tajikstan used to play. That offers quite innovative way of dealing with problem of Black pieces development. E.g.: Lane-Khouseinov 0-1, Calvia 2004.
- 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 Bc5 The famous Traxler counter-gambit appeared only twice: Gajadin-Press 0-1, Calvia 2004 and Small-Van Tilbury 0-1, Novi Sad 1990.
- 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Qf6 That wouldn't be worth a note unless it was played by GM Mariotti! Rodriguez-Mariotti 0-1, Skopje 1972.
- 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Bb4 Why not after all??! Lima-Hector ½-½, Manila 1992 and Sznapik-Klinger ½-½, Thessaloniki 1988.
- 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bd3 The Kopec line. Solomon-Love 1-0, Moscow 1994.
- 1. e4 c5 2. Na3 Quite entertaining given that it was employed by the top player Sasikiran-Cheparinov 1-0, Turin 2006.
- 1. d4 d5 2. Nd2 This interesting opening was introduced by Israeli Moshe Czerniak: Czerniak-Holm 1-0, Varna 1962 and Czerniak-Capablanca ½-½, Buenos Aires 1939.
- 1. d4 Nf6 2. f3 A line that gives White interesting possibilities for attack: Abbasifar-Mohamed 1-0, Istanbul 2000 and Attard-Kwan 1-0. Skopje 1972.
* Unusual material imbalance:
- A Rook fighting five pawns: Lungu-Marder Rivera 1-0, Novi Sad 1990 after Black's 52nd move.
- Two Rooks fighting four minor pieces: Padevsky-Matanović 0-1, Havana 1966 after Black's 30th move.
- A Bishop fighting seven pawns: Huguet-Flores Soto 1-0, Lugano 1968, after White's 42nd move.
- A Queen fighting pair of Bishops and pawns: Tsvetkov-Hounie Fleurquin 0-1, Buenos Aires 1939, after White's 54th move.
- A Queen fighting pair of Knights and pawns: Lalic-Shirov ½-½, Moscow 1994, after Black's 54th move.
- Pair of Knights and Bishop fighting sole Knight: Hoang-Fadi 1-0, Yerevan 1996, after White's 50th move.
- Pair of Bishops and Knight fighting sole Knight: Erdogan-Elliott 1-0, Istanbul 2000, after White's 50th move.
- This one is balanced: exactly one piece of each kind on each side: Williams-Simutowe 0-1, Istanbul 2000, after Black's 41st move.
All-time Olympic records
* Most Olympic appearances: 20 - Portisch and Torre; 19 - Westerinen; 17 - Hook, Kortschnoj; 16 - Andersson, Bouaziz.
Torre (59 years old), Andersson (59), Bouaziz (60) and Kortschnoj (79) are still active players, but only Torre appeared in 2010 although he was not in the team in 2008.
* Biggest gap between first and last appearance at the Olympiads: 48 years - Kortschnoj (1960-2008); 44 years - Portisch (1956-2000) and Westerinen (1962-2006); 42 - Camilleri (1960-2002) and Rooze (1968-2010); 41 - Fairhurst (1933-1974), Najdorf (1935-1976) and Yanofsky (1939-1980); 40 - Dunkelblum (1928-1968), Robatsch (1954-1994), Pustina (1960-2000) and Bouaziz (1966-2006); 39 - Enevoldsen (1933-1972). Ylvi Pustina of Albania was the non-playing captain in 2008 making it 48 years between his first and last appearance at the Olympiad. Jan Rooze of Belgium appeared in 2010 aged 72 so he came back after mere 34 years, as he was not in the team since 1976.
* Most points scored: 176½ - Portisch; 146 - Torre; 145 - Najdorf; 142½ - Gligorić; 141 - Kortschnoj; 140 - Hook; 133½ - Westerinen. 23 players scored
at least 100 points total at the Olympiads. Player to have scored nothing from most games: M. Ioannidis (Cyprus) - 0/24.
* Most games played: 260 - Portisch; 243 - Torre; 238 - Westerinen; 235 - Hook; 223 - Gligorić; 222 - Najdorf; 214 - Gheorghiu; 211 - Kortschnoj; 206 - Unzicker and Bouaziz; 200 - Ståhlberg.
* Most wins: 121 - Portisch; 117 - Hook; 93 - Najdorf, Kortschnoj and Westerinen; 89 - Torre; 88 - Gligorić; 85 - Keres. Craig Skehan of Papua New Guinea played 52 games between 1986 and 2008 without scoring a single game win - fortunately for him he won by forfeit the last round's game in Dresden to hold +1=10-42 record. A.Luga of PNG has scored 7 draws and 23 loses and is the only one to play at least 30 games overall and not to taste the sweetness of the win.
* Most draws: 125 - Gheorghiu; 119 - Andersson; 114 - Torre; 111 - Portisch and Ftáčnik; 110 - Unzicker; 109 - Gligorić; 104 - Najdorf and Filip. Biggest draw percentage (min. 50 games played): 68.2% (60/88) - Gelfand; 66.7% (64/96) - Sosonko; 64.9% (50/77) - Parma. Most games without scoring a single draw: Z.Asefi (Afghanistan) - 37 (19 wins and 18 loses).
* Least loses: 107 players conceded no game loss ever. Of there most games were played by: 56 - Kramnik; 19 - Ács; 18 - Minić; 16 - Capablanca, Balshan, Engels; 15 - Roiz, Kuzmin. Other impressive records: Petrosian - 1 loss from 129 games; Bronstein - 1/49; Spassky - 2/135; Smyslov - 2/113; Tal - 2/101; Alekhine - 2/72; Karpov - 2/68; Kasparov - 3/82; Sosonko - 4/96, Plfeger 4/80.
* Most loses: 82 loses in 9 appearances - Pickering (British Virgin Islands); 80/8 - Kleopas (Cyprus); 72/13 - Camilleri (Malta); 72/17 - Hook (Virgin Islands); 64/11 - Philippe (Luxembourg); 64/19 - Westerinen (Finland); 62/11 - Volpinari (San Marino); 61/14 - Stull (Luxembourg); 60/8 - Süer (Turkey).
* The 100% record: Twenty two players hold the perfect 100% Olympic record, a.o.: Bah (Mali) 7/7, Imed (Tunisia) 4/4; Pogáts (Hungary) and Mir (Pakistan) 3/3.
* Best percentage performance (min. 50 games): 81.2% - Tal; 80.1% - Karpov; 79.8% - Petrosian; 79.7% - Kashdan and Smyslov; 78.7% - Kasparov; 78.5% - Alekhine; 76.9% - Matulović; 75.9% - Keres; 75.7% - Geller; 75.5% - Tarjan and Horowitz;
75.4% - Fischer... (last with >0 score) ... 3.1% - Kremer; 2.9% - Jerolim (both Luxembourg).
* Most team medals: 11 - Gligorić (1-6-5); 10 - Petrosian (9-1-0) and Ivkov (0-6-4); 9 - Smyslov (9-0-0) and Matanović (0-5-4); 8 - Kasparov, Tal (8-0-0 both) and Keres (7-0-1).
* Most individual medals: 11 - Kasparov (7-2-2); 8 - Smyslov (4-2-2); 7 - Tal (5-2-0), Keres (5-1-1) and Kortschnoj (4-0-3).
* Number of games and scores: a total of 76,334 games have been scheduled (including forfeits). White won 28,332 of them (37.1%), drew 25,383 (33.3%) and lost 22,600 (29.6%) scoring 53.7% by average.
White's score increased last years. It rises to 54.0% once we consider only 1990-2006 period and up to 54.6% for 2002-2006. It also becomes slightly higher (54-55%) among top rated players (+2400).
* Match results (1927-2006): The table below provides figures on the frequency of match scores of 18,255 matches played so far. Only two matches saw mutual forfeits thus reducing total number of points earned below 4. Those were Guatemala-Senegal 1-0 (1982) and Nigeria-Afghanistan 2-1 (2004).
| score |
n |
% |
game
distribution |
| 4 : 0 |
2,158 |
11.8% |
1111 (2,158) |
| 3½ : ½ |
2,738 |
15.0% |
111½ (2,738) |
| 3 : 1 |
4,519 |
24.8% |
11½½ (2,897)
1110 (1,622) |
| 2½ : 1½ |
5,617 |
30.8% |
11½0 (3,466)
1½½½ (2,151) |
| 2 : 2 |
3,223 |
17.7% |
½½½½ (591)
1½½0 (1,831)
1100 (801) |
| TOTAL |
18,255 |
100.0% |
x |
Elo Rating Trivia
* Average Elo of top teams: the average Elo rises constantly since the very introduction of Elo system. We do not want
to discuss whether it is because of inflation or because of rising strength of top players and
the diagram shows just how average Elo
of 1st, 10th, 20th and 30th seed altered during last 30 years.
* Highest and lowest Elo: the highest rated player to ever appear at the Olympiads was of course Garry Kasparov whose
Elo was 2838 when he played for Russia in Bled. Ho Meng Wei (Taipei) is both the lowest rated player so far (Elo 1550) and the youngest one.
* Biggest Elo difference:
* Biggest game upsets:
Biggest Elo advantage to lose:
508 -
Anit (1881)-Ibarra Chami (2389) 1-0, Dresden 2008 Also:
447 -
Danner (2402)-Gautam (1955) 0-1, Turin 2006, White miscalculated but it was not obvious anyway;
390 -
Kasatchol (2080)-V.Atlas (2470) 1-0, Yerevan 1996, Black were pushing but it all expired;
360 -
Trepp (2220)-Ribli (2580) 1-0, Lucerne 1982, excellent play by White;
352 -
Sutovsky (2657)-Annaberdiev (2305) 0-1, Bled 2002, terrible blunder by White;
335 -
Clarke (2205)-Csom (2540) 1-0, Thessaloniki 1988, tactical blunder in a won position;
330 -
Gonzalez (2275)-Bareev (2605) 1-0, Novi Sad 1990, Colombia beat USSR after excellent game!;
310 -
Cooper (2215)-Najdorf (2520) 1-0, Nice 1974, famous veteran overestimated his chances.
Biggest Elo advantage to draw:
568 -
Al-Sayed (2477)-Napit (1909) ½-½, Dresden 2008. Also:
493 -
Gundavaa (2124)-Guseinov (2617) ½-½, Turin 2006.
451 -
Hansen (2620)-Sosa (2169) ½-½, Istanbul 2000.
435 -
Jones (2210)-Portisch (2645) ½-½, Nice 1974, very good game by White who was close to win;
430 -
Kozlov (2290)-Adams (2720) ½-½, Turin 2006, just drawn, a slip-up of a +2700 player;
420 -
Hamid (2105)-Sisniega (2525) ½-½, Manila 1992, game drawn by a woman!;
410 -
Agdestein (2600)-Yilmaz (2190) ½-½, Yerevan 1996, reckless opening play by White.
* Biggest match upsets: what was biggest difference between result predicted from Elo tables and OTB result ever?
The table below lists top 10 upsets where all players on both sides were rated.
More interesting matches are listed in the lower part of the table, as well
as some of biggest upsets where not all of players were rated (marked with asterisks)
* Elo skewness test: surprisingly the Elo prediction tables seem quite convergent with OTB scores. Watch
the diagram here. The test had been
done on all rated games played in the history of the Olympiads. Opposite to all other tournaments where Elo predictions are biased against
higher rated players (especially in 100-250 Elo diff. zone) here it seems there is no more bias. The Olympiads seem to give extra support to stronger players then.
For more info on skewness of Elo distribution please read
Jeff Sonas' article.
That's all folks!