The 19th

Chess Olympiad 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 FIDE Onli ...

(), comprising an open team tournament as well as the annual

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 Spor ...

congress, took place between September 5–27, 1970, in

Siegen Siegen () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany, in the south Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located in the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein in the Arnsberg (region), Arnsberg region. The university town (n ...

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

. The Soviet team with six Grandmasters, led by world champion

Boris Spassky Boris Vasilyevich Spassky (; January 30, 1937 – February 27, 2025) was a Russian chess grandmaster who was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 to 1972. Spassky played three world championship matches: he lost to Tigra ...

, lived up to expectations and won their tenth consecutive gold medal, although only by a single point, with Hungary and Yugoslavia taking the silver and bronze, respectively.

Tournament report

Held at the Siegerland Hall venue, a total of 64 nations applied to enter the tournament. Unfortunately, space constraints and FIDE's intended model format meant that only 60 could be accommodated. It was then found that four teams were to have their applications rejected on the grounds that they had missed the deadline. These four teams were: Argentina, France, Ecuador, and Venezuela. When Panama withdrew their application, Argentina took their place. The tournament was run as a two-stage round-robin. Six preliminary groups of 10 teams each determined the composition of five Finals of 12 teams each, with the top two from each group ending up in Final A etc. Several unsatisfactory aspects of this system were voiced, however, and they manifested themselves in a variety of ways. Firstly, the pressure was raised to fever pitch at a very early stage in the proceedings. A single poor result in the preliminaries could condemn a team to a low final group. All this proved too much for England's top player, Jonathan Penrose, who in his crucial last-round preliminary match, blundered a piece and fainted from the shock. A nervous player at the best of times, he was retired from the rest of the contest on medical grounds and England ended up in Group C, below their seeding, which they then went on to win by a hefty margin. ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' reported several instances of cheating. For example, in the

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

versus

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

preliminary match, a player moved his

queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

next to the opponent's

king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

with

check Check or cheque, may refer to: Places * Check, Virginia Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Check'' (film), a 2021 Indian Telugu-language film * "The Check" (''The Amazing World of Gumball''), a 2015 episode of ''The Amazing World of Gumball'' ...

. Capturing the queen with the king was

forced ''Forced'' is a single-player and co-op action role-playing game developed by BetaDwarf, released in October 2013 for Windows, OS X and Linux through the Steam platform as well as Wii U. It is about gladiators fighting for their freedom in a fant ...

and so the player made the move for his opponent, declaring

stalemate Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check and has no legal move. Stalemate results in a draw. During the endgame, stalemate is a resource that can enable the player with the inferior position ...

and shaking hands all in one movement. His dazed opponent ended up signing the scoresheet before recovering his wits and realizing (too late) that it was not a stalemate at all. It was possible for strong teams, sitting comfortably in favourable qualification spots, to not try as hard as they might have in other circumstances. Such actions could influence the qualification process below them and, as a deliberate ploy, could have assisted in assigning a strong rival to a lower final group. Then there was the whole question of

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

decided to forfeit their game against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

as a protest against racial segregation and so lost 4–0. Naturally, this meant that the whole group dynamic was lost and the resulting placings somewhat distorted. Some teams and a small number of strong players did not compete at all as a protest against the participation of the South African team. The teams competed for the ''Hamilton-Russell Cup''. Matches were scored by game points, with match points being used in the event of a tie-break. The Chief Referee was

International Arbiter In chess tournaments, an arbiter is an official who oversees matches and ensures that the rules of chess are followed. International Arbiter ''International Arbiter'' is a title awarded by FIDE to individuals deemed capable of acting as arbiter ...

Harry de Graaf Harry may refer to: Television * ''Harry'' (American TV series), 1987 comedy series starring Alan Arkin * ''Harry'' (British TV series), 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons * ''Harry'' (New Zealand TV series), 2013 crime drama starring Oscar K ...

. A total of 360 players took part, including 35 grandmasters and 66 international masters. As was customary, the FIDE congress was also held during the Olympiad and the major news concerned the retirement of President

Folke Rogard Bror Axel Folke Per Rogard (6 July 1899 – 11 June 1973) was a Swedish lawyer, chess official, player and arbiter. He was born in Stockholm, with the surname Rosengren, and qualified as a lawyer with that name. After a family member was charged w ...

after 21 years of service. He was to be replaced by former

World Champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

Max Euwe Machgielis "Max" Euwe (; May 20, 1901 – November 26, 1981) was a Dutch chess player, mathematician, author, and chess administrator. He was the fifth player to become World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, a title he held from 1935 ...

and this appeared to be a universally popular decision. Another important issue was the presentation of a proposed new system for the awarding GM and IM titles; the congress adopted in full the report submitted by a committee comprising top player

Svetozar Gligorić Svetozar Gligorić ( sr-Cyrl, Светозар Глигорић; 2 February 1923 – 14 August 2012) was a Serbian and Yugoslav chess grandmaster and musician. He won the championship of Yugoslavia a record 11 times, and is considered the best ...

, Professor

Arpad Elo Arpad Emmerich Elo ( August 25, 1903 – November 5, 1992) was a Hungarian-American physics professor who created the Elo rating system for two-player games such as chess. Born in Egyházaskesző, Kingdom of Hungary, he moved to the Uni ...

and FIDE Vice President Mr. Dorazil. The tournament was very well attended by the public, particularly on the day that current

played future champion

Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Chess Champi ...

, with an estimated 3000 spectators turning up (Spassky won).

Individual performances

World Champion Boris Spassky took the best score on board one (79.17%) and won a suit as a prize. Bobby Fischer finished a close second with 76.9% and

Bent Larsen Jørgen Bent Larsen (4 March 1935 – 9 September 2010) was a Danish chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster and author. Known for his imaginative and unorthodox style of play, he was the second-strongest non-Soviet Union, Soviet player, behind ...

a close third with 76.5%.

Tigran Petrosian Tigran Vardani Petrosian (; ; 17 June 1929 – 13 August 1984) was a Soviet-Armenian chess grandmaster and the ninth World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his almost-impenetrable defensive playing s ...

extended his amazing run of unbeaten Olympiad games to 90 (won 58, drawn 32).

Viktor Korchnoi Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi (, ; 23 March 1931 – 6 June 2016) was a Soviet (before 1976) and Swiss (after 1980) chess grandmaster (GM) and chess writer. He is considered one of the strongest players never to have become World Chess Champion. Bor ...

lost only one game - as a result of oversleeping he defaulted to the Spaniard, Diez del Corral. There was no satisfactory explanation as to why (non-playing) team captain

Paul Keres Paul Keres (; 7 January 1916 – 5 June 1975) was an Estonian chess grandmaster and chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, and narrowly missed a chance at a World Chess Championship match on five ...

or one of Korchnoi's teammates could not have telephoned his room when noticing he was a few minutes late.

Oscar Panno Oscar Roberto Panno (born 17 March 1935) is an Argentine chess Grandmaster. Biography Panno was born in Buenos Aires. He won the 2nd World Junior Chess Championship in 1953, ahead of such future strong Grandmasters as Borislav Ivkov, Bent Lar ...

drew a record 15 games; however this may be partially explained by his accommodation. Siegen was a small place and many competitors were housed in the surrounding area. When Korchnoi asked Panno where he was living, his reply was "in a pure field".

Results

Preliminaries

Preliminary head-to-head results were carried over to the finals, so no teams met more than once. All preliminary groups and finals were played as

round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...

s. The results were as follows: * Group 1: * Group 2: * Group 3: * Group 4: * Group 5: * Group 6: * Team Albania refused to play South Africa due to political reasons.