The 38th Chess Olympiad

Chess Olympiad

The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete against each other. The event is organised by FIDE, which selects the host nation.-Birth of the Olympiad:The first Olympiad was unofficial...

, organized by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs

Fédération Internationale des Échecs

The Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation is an international organization that connects the various national chess federations around the world and acts as the governing body of international chess competition. It is usually referred to as FIDE , its French acronym.FIDE...

 and comprising an open and women's tournament

Chess tournament

A chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard form of chess competition among serious players.Today, the most recognized chess...

, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

, took place between 12–25 November 2008, in Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

, Germany and was won by Armenia.
The 2010 Olympiad

39th Chess Olympiad

The 39th Chess Olympiad, organized by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place in 2010 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, on to...

 is expected to be held in Khanty-Mansiysk

Khanty-Mansiysk

Khanty-Mansiysk experiences a subarctic climate . The climate is extreme, with temperatures as low as -49 C° and as high as 34.5 C°. On average, however, the region is very cold, with an average tempurature of -1.1 C°...

, Russia.
2012 Olympiad will be in Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

 (Turkey), who won over Budva

Budva

Budva is a coastal town in Montenegro. It has around 15,000 inhabitants, and it is the centre of municipality...

 (Montenegro).

Rules

Compared to the last edition of the Olympiad, the tournament, while still a Swiss system, was reduced from 13 to 11 rounds, with accelerated pairings. No draws by agreement

Draw by agreement

In chess, a draw by agreement is the outcome of a game due to the agreement of both players to a draw. A player may offer a draw to his opponent at any stage of a game; if the opponent accepts, the game is a draw. The relevant portion of the FIDE laws of chess is article 9.1...

 are permitted before 30 moves have been completed.
Yet there were games drawn as soon as in 16th move – formally drawn by repetition which there is no rule against.

In addition, players who are not present at the board at the commencement of a round are forfeited, the latter rule was made to align chess with other sports events. In both the open section and women's section, the team matches are played over four boards. Each team may have five players, one for each board plus an alternate.

146 teams (including three of the host nation, Germany) participated in the open section, while 111 teams played in the women's section.

Olympiad Open

1.  Armenia Armenia
2.  Israel Israel
3.  United States USA

Olympiad Women

1.  Georgia (country) Georgia
2.  Ukraine Ukraine
3.  United States USA

Olympiad Open

Top Performance Ratings:

1. Gabriel Sargissian  Armenia Armenia
2. Peter Leko
   Péter Lékó
   On the way to winning the prestigious Corus chess tournament in 2005, Lékó defeated Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand with the black pieces. The moves were:...
   
     Hungary Hungary
3. Boris Gelfand
   Boris Gelfand
   Boris Abramovich Gelfand is a Belarus-born Israeli chess Grandmaster. He won the 2011 Candidates Tournament and will challenge Viswanathan Anand for the World Chess Championship 2012.-Biography:...
   
     Israel Israel

Olympiad Women

Top Performance Ratings:

1. Maia Chiburdanidze
   Maia Chiburdanidze
   Maia Chiburdanidze is a Georgian chess grandmaster, and the seventh Women's World Chess Champion. She is the only chess player in history who has won nine Chess Olympiads....
   
     Georgia (country) Georgia
2. Joanna Majdan
   Joanna Majdan
   Joanna Majdan-Gajewska is a Polish chess player with the title of Woman Grandmaster . She was a member of the national team at the Turin Chess Olympiad, where she scored 6 points from 9 games...
   
     Poland Poland
3. Martha Lorena Fierro-Baquero
   Martha Fierro
   Martha Lorena Fierro Baquero is a chess player. She holds the FIDE player titles of International Master and Woman Grandmaster and the FIDE training title of FIDE Trainer, acquired after successful examination at the FIDE Seminar for Coaches in Vung Tau on 29.10.2008. She has represented Ecuador...
   
    Ecuador Ecuador

External links

• Official website
• Results (Open section)
• Results (Women's section)