The 34th

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 ...

(), organized by the

Fédération Internationale des Échecs 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 go ...

and comprising an openAlthough commonly referred to as the ''men's division'', this section is open to all players. and women's tournament, took place between October 28 and November 12, 2000, in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. There were 126 teams in the open event and 86 in the women's event. 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 ...

Geurt Gijssen (

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

). Teams were paired across the 14 rounds of competition according to the Swiss system. The open division was played over four boards per round, whilst the women's was played over three. In the event of a draw, the tie-break was decided first by 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 secondly by match points. 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 100 minutes to make the first 40 of their moves, then an additional 50 minutes to make the next 20 moves, and then 10 minutes to finish the game, with an additional 30 seconds devolving on each player after each move, beginning with the first. 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 126 teams representing 124 nations. Turkey, as hosts, fielded two teams, whilst 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 ...

provided one squad.

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

Mauritania Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a sovereign country in Maghreb, Northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to Mauritania–Western Sahara border, the north and northwest, ...

, and

Djibouti Djibouti, officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the east. The country has an area ...

were signed up but never arrived. Once again, Russia had to do without their strongest players, the "Three Ks". Classical World Champion

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 ...

and challenger

Vladimir Kramnik Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. He was the World Chess Champion#Split title (1993–2006), Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the 14th undisputed World Ch ...

were in the midst of their championship match, and ex-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 still at odds with the national federation. Captained by the new

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 ...

champion Khalifman, however, Russia were still favourites, and the team did win their fifth consecutive title, although only by a single point. Germany took the silver medals, while Ukraine clinched the bronze, beating Hungary on tie-break. Pre-tournament medal favourites England, whose average rating was a mere 13 points below Russia's, finished a disappointing seventh. : :

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 ...

Alexander Morozevich Alexander Sergeyevich Morozevich (; born July 18, 1977) is a Russian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1994. Morozevich is a two-time World Championship candidate (2005, 2007), two-time Russian champion and has re ...

2804 * Board 1:

Utut Adianto Utut Adianto Wahyuwidayat (born 16 March 1965), commonly known as Utut Adianto is an Indonesian politician and chess player, who is serving as a member of the People's Representative Council since 2009. A member of the Indonesian Democratic Part ...

7½ / 9 = 83.3% * Board 2:

Ruslan Ponomariov Ruslan Olehovych Ponomariov (; born 11 October 1983) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. He was FIDE World Chess Champion from 2002 to 2004 and is the youngest holder of the title at the age of 18 years and 104 days, though the title was split ...

8½ / 11 = 77.3% * Board 3: Dragoljub Jacimović 7 / 9 = 77.8% * Board 4:

Ashot Anastasian Ashot Anastasian (; 16 July 1964 – 26 December 2016) was an Armenian chess Grandmaster. He won two team bronze medals and one individual gold medal at Chess Olympiads. On the March 2011 FIDE list, he had an Elo rating of 2556,Taleb Moussa 6 / 7 = 85.7% * 2nd reserve: Alexei Barsov 5½ / 7 = 78.6%

Women's event

The women's division was contested by 86 teams representing 84 nations.

, as hosts, fielded two teams, whilst the

entered one squad. Defending champions China were huge favourites on rating and retained their title, led by reigning world champion

Xie Jun Xie Jun (born October 30, 1970) is a Chinese chess grandmaster and is the first Asian woman to become a chess grandmaster. She had two separate reigns as Women's World Chess Champion, from 1991 to 1996 and again from 1999 to 2001. Xie is one ...

and with two future champions in the team: Zhu Chen and Xu Yuhua. Georgia and Russia took the silver and bronze medals, respectively. : :

Individual medals

: Zhu Chen 2641 * Board 1:

Viktorija Čmilytė Viktorija may refer to: * Viktorija (given name), including a list of people with this name * Viktorija (singer), Serbian singer See also * Viktoriya * Viktoria (disambiguation) * Victoria (disambiguation) * Viktor (disambiguation) * Victor ...

9½ / 12 = 79.2% * Board 2: Zhu Chen 9 / 11 = 81.8% * Board 3:

Nino Khurtsidze Nino Khurtsidze (28 August 1975 – 22 April 2018) was a Georgian chess player. She was awarded the FIDE title of Woman Grandmaster (WGM) in 1993 and International Master (IM) in 1999. She won the World Girls U-20 Chess Championship in 1993 and ...

11 / 13 = 84.6% * Reserve: Zahira El-Ghabi 6½ / 7 = 92.9%

Overall title

The Nona Gaprindashvili Trophy is awarded to the nation that has the best average rank in the open and women's divisions. Where two or more teams are tied, they are ordered by best single finish in either division and then by total number of points scored. The trophy, named after the former women's world champion (1961–78), was created by FIDE in 1997.

Notes

34th Chess Olympiad: Istanbul 2000
OlimpBase {{Chess Olympiads Chess Olympiads Women's Chess Olympiads Olympiads 2000 Chess Olympiad 2000 Olympiad 2000 Chess Olympiad 2000 International sports competitions hosted by Turkey 2000s in Istanbul October 2000 sports events in Turkey November 2000 sports events in Turkey