The Against Chess Olympiad ( ''al-Awlambayād aḍ-ḍādi ash-Shatranji'') was arranged as an alternative to the official 22nd Chess Olympiad, held in Haifa, Israel, almost simultaneously. This unofficial Olympiad took place in

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece *Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in t ...

, Libyan Arab Republic from October 24 to November 15, 1976.

Background

When

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

decided to award the hosting of the 1976 Olympiad to Israel, it caused considerable controversy, as several countries, including the Soviet Union and all of the Arab nations, did not recognize the state of Israel. After FIDE refused to change the venue, the Soviet team boycotted the tournament in Haifa in protest, as did all the Soviet satellite states in the Eastern Bloc, and the Arab member nations of FIDE. The Arab nations held their own Olympiad in Tripoli at the same time as the official one. In the promotion material, this event was called the ''Against Israel Olympiad'', but it has later become known by the politically less volatile name ''Against Chess Olympiad''. This implies that the tournament was against chess itself, which is not correct; the intended meaning was ''Chess Anti-Olympiad'' (analogous to

antipope An antipope ( la, antipapa) is a person who makes a significant and substantial attempt to occupy the position of Bishop of Rome and leader of the Catholic Church in opposition to the legitimately elected pope. At times between the 3rd and mid- ...

). While the unofficial Tripoli Olympiad was a highly charged political event, the actual chess played was on quite a different level. None of the major chess nations, Eastern or Western, came to Libya, meaning the field consisted of the Arab states, a number of minor chess nations, and some that were not members of FIDE at the time. No Grandmasters were present, and very few

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

s attended. The Philippines, Italy, and Uruguay were the only nations to send teams to both Olympiads, and none of them won any medals at either event.

Results

Thirty-four teams played a 13-round

Swiss system tournament A Swiss-system tournament is a non-eliminating tournament format that features a fixed number of rounds of competition, but considerably fewer than for a round-robin tournament; thus each competitor (team or individual) does not play all the other ...

. In a somewhat surprising outcome, the completely unknown Salvadoran team, which included 17-year-old talent Boris Pineda, took home the gold medals. Silver and bronze went to Tunisia and Pakistan, respectively.

References

Against Chess Olympiad: Tripoli 1976
OlimpBase {{Chess Olympiads Chess Olympiads 1976 in chess Chess in Libya 1976 in Libyan sport 20th century in Tripoli, Libya International sports competitions hosted by Libya Politics and sports

Background

Results

See also

References