Baku Chess Olympiad 2016

by Bill Wall

The USA took the gold (on

tiebreaks) at the 42nd Chess
Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan,
followed by Ukraine (silver
medal) and Russia (bronze
medal). The 11-round event
was held from September 1
through September 14, 2016.
There were 894 players in the
Open section and 693 players
in the Women's section, for a
total of 1,587 chess players. Bill Wall
The Open section had a record
180 teams (187 chess
federations were contacted)
that signed up (10 teams did
not arrive, so there were 170
teams) from 175 nations, and Every pawn is a potential Queen.
the Women's section had 142 -Mason
teams from 138 nations. The
USA and Ukraine scored 20
points each (2 points for a win
and 1 point for a draw). The
USA won on tie-break. It was
their first gold medal since
1976 (the Russians and Eastern
Bloc countries didn't play that
year). The USA team also won
in 1931, 1933, 1935, and
1937.

The FIDE General Assembly

and 87th FIDE Congress was
held during the Chess
Olympiad, attended by a
record 182 countries. Top
board prizes included:

Board 1: Baadur Jobava,

Leinier Dominguez Perez,
Fabiano Caruana

Board 2: Vladimir Kramnik,

Anton Kovalyov, Jorge Cori

Board 3: Wesley So, Zoltan

Almasi, Eugenio Torre

Board 4: Laurent Fressinet, Ian

Nepomniachtchi, A. Indjic

Reserve: Andrei Volokitin (8.5

out of 9 — best individual
player), S. Khadar, A.
Aleksandrov

In the Women's section, China

(Hou, Ju, Zhao, Tan, and Guo)
took the gold, Poland took the
silver, and Ukraine took the
bronze. This was China's 5th
gold medal in the Women's
event and the first since 1994.
The Women's USA team
(Krush, Paikidze, Zatonskih,
N?mcová, S. F. Foisor) took
6th place. Ukraine won the
Gaprindashvili Cup for the
country that had the best
combined results from the
Open and Women sections.
The USA took 2nd place and
China took 3rd place.

Eugene Torre, 64, of the

Philippines, played in his 23rd
chess Olympiad, a record.
Torre has played in every
Chess Olympiad since 1970
except in Dresden in 2008. He
scored 10 out of 11 points.

World champion Magnus

Carlsen led Norway to 5th
place, their best Olympiad
ever. After the event Carlsen
jokingly wrote "probably need
an even better squad to go
further though; wonder if
Caruana and So are still for
sale."

For the USA team, Caruana on

Board 1 scored 7 out of 10
(undefeated). Nakamura scored
7.5 out of 11 games. Wesley
So scored 8.5 out of 10
(undefeated). Sam Shankland
scored 5.5 out of 8. Ray
Robson scored 3 out of 5. The
USA team won 9 matches and
drew 2 matches. Ukraine (10-
1) had the same score but
worse tiebreaks (Ukraine's
only loss was to the USA
team).

This was John Donaldson's

12th chess Olympiad.

Before 2008, the medals were

decided by board points. The
match points are now used for
medals.

Eight of the top 10 players in

the world participated in the
event. Former world champion
Vishwanathan Anand did not
play and Levon Aronian of
Armenia did not play.

The 2020 Chess Olympiad will

be held in Khanty-Mansiysk.

Here is the order of finish in

the Open section.
1 USA — Caruana, Nakamura,
So, Shankland, Robson (John
Donaldson — Captain)
2 Ukraine — Eljanov,
Ponomariov, Kryvoruchko,
Korobov, Volokitin
3 Russia — Karjakin,
Kramnik, Tomashevsky,
Nepomniachtchi, Grischuk
4 India
5 Norway
6 Turkey
7 Poland
8 France
9 England
10 Peru

Teams that did not show up

include:
Armenia (they were protesting
the event played in Baku since
Armenia and Azerbaijan were
in armed conflict)
Bhutan
Burundi
Cambodia
Comoros
East Timor
Gabon
Laos
Nauru
Solomon Islands

Teams from past chess

Olympiads include:

Antigua
Belize
British Virgin Islands
Canary Islands
Chad
Zaire
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