Indian men & women win the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad held at Budapest, Hungary

Indian men wrapped up victory in the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad with a statement 3.5-0.5 win over Slovenia. They finished a full four points ahead of five teams, with the United States taking silver, while Uzbekistan won bronze medals. Also in the Women’s 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad, it was Team India that clinched gold for the first time after narrowly missing out when playing on home soil in 2022.

what’s is chess olympiad?

The Olympiad is the premier chess event for countries around the world. Held every two years, it lasts around three weeks and sees teams from roughly 200 countries compete for medals in the Women’s and Open competitions.

Why Women’s and Open & not men?

Yes. Women can choose to play for their country’s Open team if selected, but as for many other events such as individual world, national and junior championships, there is a separate category for females. Usually around a dozen countries have a female player in their Open team.

But why do they separate the genders at all? It’s only chess.

This is a very popular question, and goes to a much broader debate about the sexes in chess. An extra element is the recent ruling that transgendered women can compete in Women’s teams at the Olympiad, which has now occurred a couple of times. This is different to the Olympics, where at present only intersex women can compete.

How many players play in a team?

A team is made up of five players, although only four play in each match. Most countries tend to rotate their lineup pretty evenly throughout the tournament, but some of the very strong countries stick with their top four and only substitute in their fifth player if necessary, for example because of illness.

How does the tournament work?

Countries get points for winning their match in every round. It depends from year to year, but usually there are eleven to thirteen rounds. In each round, every country is matched (‘paired’) with another country, and their top four players (‘boards’) play their respective opposite numbers from the opposition. A score of 2.5 or better from their four games will mean the country wins the match and earns two ‘match points’; if the match is tied at 2-2, each country earns one point. The country with the most match points at the end of all the rounds is the winner.

How are the pairings decided?

The Olympiad uses a Swiss pairing system, just like in most regular chess tournaments. The basic idea is that as the competition goes on, teams will be matched with other teams on a similar score: the top teams will compete against each other, and likewise for the bottom. This does mean that in the early rounds there can be some wildly lopsided match-ups, and typically most matches in the first round will end in a score of 4-0.

What about ties?

Countries with tied match points at the end of the tournament are sorted on ‘board points’, by tallying the total individual points from all the matches. And because ties are relatively common, it’s important for the big countries to try to close out 4-0 scores against weaker teams – every game matters!

So who are these ‘big teams’? The Russians, right?

On paper, yes. But in practice… The Russian (and previously USSR) team has been the top seeded team in the Open division ever since the tournament began, and indeed they dominated the Olympiads prior to the breakup of the Soviet Union. Since then, however, they’ve accumulated something of a reputation as Olympiad chokers. Winners in recent decades include Armenia, Ukraine and the recent chess powerhouse of China. The other powerhouses include Azerbaijan, India and the United States. But on paper, the Russians are still clearly the rating favourites.

These same countries are typically also the big names in the Women’s competition, although the Armenia and Azerbaijan teams are relatively weaker than their Open equivalents, while the Indian and US teams are arguably relatively stronger.

 What is FIDE?

The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE, is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the governing body of international chess competition.

What are awards connected to Chess Olympiad?

India takes home all 3 trophies in the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad:

Hamilton-Russell Cup, for winning the #ChessOlympiad

the Vera Menchik Cup for winning the Women’s Olympiad

the Gaprindashvili Cup, a special trophy awarded for the best combined result in the Open and Women’s sections

Key Terms

FIDE, CHESS OLYMPIAD, ELO rating, Trophy