The 32nd

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 ...

(, ''32-rd Shakhmatayin olimpiadan''), organized by

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 ...

and comprising an openAlthough commonly referred to as the ''men's division'', this section is open to both male and female players. and a women's tournament, took place between September 15 and October 2, 1996, in

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , ; ; sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia, as well as one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerev ...

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

. Both tournament sections were officiated by

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 ...

Alesha Khachatrian of Armenia. The Russian team won their third consecutive title, captained by PCA world champion Kasparov. Once again, due to a dispute with the national federation,

champion

Anatoly Karpov Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov (, ; born May 23, 1951) is a Russian and former Soviet Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, ⁣and politician. He was the 12th World Chess Champion from 1975 ...

was not present. Ukraine, led by Ivanchuk, took the silver, and the United States returned to the medal ranks for the first time since the fall of the Iron Curtain, beating England by half a point on tie break—somewhat ironically, half of the US team were born in Eastern Europe. In addition to the overall medal winners, the teams were divided into seeding groups, with the top finishers in each group receiving special prizes.

Open event

The open division was contested by 114 teams representing 111 nations plus Armenia "B" and "C" as well as the

International Braille Chess Association The International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) is an organization for blind and visually impaired chess players. The IBCA is a FIDE-affiliated chess organization as well as a part of the International Blind Sports Federation. The Internation ...

. Mali were signed up but didn't show up and were disqualified. Due to an odd number of participants, the hosts were allowed to field an additional third squad, but when team Yemen arrived after the second round, the number became odd again. However, Afghanistan set a new Olympic record by not showing up until round 8 and once again brought the total number of teams an even one. The

time control A time control is a mechanism in the tournament play of almost all two-player board games so that each round of the match can finish in a timely way and the tournament can proceed. For turn-based games such as chess, shogi or go, time cont ...

for each game permitted each player 2 hours to make the first 40 of his or her moves, then an additional 1-hour to make the next 20 moves. In the event of a draw, the tie-break was decided by 1. The

Buchholz system The Buchholz system (also spelled Buchholtz) is a ranking or scoring system developed by Bruno Buchholz (died 1958) in 1932, for Swiss system tournaments. It was originally developed as an auxiliary scoring method, but more recently it has been u ...

; and 2. Match points. : :

Individual medals

Performance rating The PR (performance rating, P-rating, or Pentium rating) system was a figure of merit developed by AMD, Cyrix, IBM Microelectronics and SGS-Thomson in the mid-1990s as a method of comparing their x86 processors to those of rival Intel. The idea ...

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...

2873 * Board 1: Mohamad Al-Modiahki 8 / 10 = 80.0% * Board 2: Richard Robinson 8 / 10 = 80.0% * Board 3:

Saidali Iuldachev Saidali Iuldachev (; born January 31, 1968) is an Uzbekistani chess Grandmaster (1997). He won Uzbekistani Chess Championship in 1993 and 2003. In 2004 he tied for 2nd–4th with Praveen Thipsay and Chakkravarthy Deepan in the Piloo Mody In ...

11 / 14 = 78.6% * Board 4: Matthew Sadler 10½ / 13 = 80.8% * 1st reserve: ("B") Karen Asrian 10 / 12 = 83.3% * 2nd reserve: Geoffrey Makumbi 7½ / 8 = 93.8%

Best game

The 'Best game' prize went t
Zurab Sturua (Georgia) – Rolando Kutirov (Macedonia)
from round 3.

Women's event

The women's division was contested by 74 teams representing 72 nations plus Armenia "B" and the

. The

for each game permitted each player 2 hours to make the first 40 of her moves, then an additional 1-hour to make the next 20 moves. In the event of a draw, the tie-break was decided by 1. The

; and 2. Match points. The Georgian team, led by one former world champion (Chiburdanidze), won their third consecutive title. China, led by another former world champion (Xie Jun), took the silver, and Russia the bronze. Newly crowned champion

Susan Polgar Susan Polgar (born April 19, 1969, as Polgár Zsuzsanna and often known as Zsuzsa Polgár) is a Hungarian-American chess grandmaster. Polgár was Women's World Chess Champion from 1996 to 1999. On FIDE's Elo rating system list of July 1984, a ...

did not take part in the event for her new country, so a second-rate US team finished as low as 35th. : :

Individual medals

: Zhu Chen 2561 * Board 1: Mähri Ovezova 10½ / 14 = 75.0% * Board 2: Zhu Chen 10 / 13 = 76.9% * Board 3:

Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (née Arakhamia; born ) is a Georgian (former Soviet Union)-born Scottish Chess Grandmaster. Chess career In 1985, she won the World Junior Chess Championship for Girls, held in Dobrna (and taking silver in Adelaide t ...

8 / 10 = 80.0% * Reserve: Marta Zielińska 6 / 7 = 85.7%

Notes

External links

32nd Chess Olympiad: Yerevan 1996
OlimpBase {{Chess Olympiads Chess Olympiads Women's Chess Olympiads Olympiad 1996 Chess Olympiad 1996 Chess Olympiad 1996 Chess Olympiad 1996 1996 in chess 20th century in Yerevan

Open event

Individual medals

Best game

Women's event

Individual medals

See also

Notes

External links