Gloomy politics once again poisoned fraternity of the chess world. The 17th edition of the Student Olympiad was held in Israel and all of Soviet dependent countries boycotted the event because of chronic political constraints. Only 11 Western teams appeared, of which USA and West Germany seemed to be strongest sides. US first board was Ken Rogoff, future GM and professor at Harvard. West Germany were led by IM Pfleger. There were no GMs and barely 3 IMs in the pool however.

England (led by Basman) took early lead but were brutally stopped by the Americans on day 9 losing 3-1. USA failed to make best use of the win losing to West Germany on the next day. With last round to be played standings were: England 25, USA 24, West Germany 23½. Pairings: England-West Germany, USA-Scotland. Rogoff achieved valuable victory over IM Levy of Scotland leading USA to a thumping 3½-½ win. The Germans did not field Pfleger (!!) but beat England, bowed down with a tension, anyway. The US took the title contributed mainly by board #2 player A.Soltis (8/9) and R.Verber (5½/7). Those two received prizes for best individual results at respective boards. Best player of English team was late Simon Webb with 7 out of 8. Reserve German player Juhnke scored 8/9 to contribute most to his team's overall score. The podium positions' winners earned huge advantage over the rest of the teams. Israel (Bleiman 8/10) came fourth ahead of Switzerland.