23rd Chess Olympiad

Official logo of the Olympiad

The 23rd Chess Olympiad, organized by FIDE and comprising an open and a women's tournament, as well as several other events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between October 25 and November 12, 1978, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

After the boycott two years earlier, the Eastern Bloc countries were back, including the Soviet team who, as usual, were huge favourites—but in the end they had to settle for the silver medal. Hungary, led by Lajos Portisch, caused quite an upset by taking the gold medals by a full point. The United States took the bronze.

Open event

Sixty-five nations played a 14-round Swiss system tournament. To make for an even number of teams, the Argentine hosts also fielded a "B" team. In the event of a draw, the tie-break was decided first by using the Buchholz system, then by match points.

Open event

#	Country	Players	Average rating	Points
1	Hungary	Portisch, Ribli, Sax, Adorján, Csom, Vadász	2570	37
2	Soviet Union	Spassky, Petrosian, Polugaevsky, Gulko, Romanishin, Vaganian	2620	36
3	United States	Kavalek, Browne, Lein, Byrne, Tarjan, Lombardy	2553	35

#	Country	Average rating	Points	Buchholz
4	West Germany	2540	33
5	Israel	2509	32½	442.5
6	Romania	2468	32½	422.5
7	Denmark	2416	32	440.5
8	Poland	2449	32	437.0
9	Spain	2429	32	430.5
10	Switzerland	2484	32	426.0
11	Canada	2388	32	422.5
12	England	2508	31½	452.5
13	Bulgaria	2486	31½	437.0
14	Netherlands	2538	31½	432.5
15	Yugoslavia	2558	31	438.0
16	Sweden	2453	31	437.5
17	Argentina	2409	31	418.0
18	Cuba	2486	30½	437.0
19	Austria	2389	30½	417.0
20	China	2273	30½	413.5
21	Mexico	2361	30½	393.5
22	Finland	2389	30	421.0
23	Colombia	2359	30	400.5
24	Philippines	2405	29½	407.0
25	New Zealand	2270	29½	396.0
26	Indonesia	2346	29½	394.0
27	Brazil	2355	29½	393.5
28	Iceland	2480	29	423.0
29	Chile	2395	29	417.0
30	Australia	2399	29	408.0
31	Norway	2409	29	398.0
-	Argentina "B"	2329	28½	413.0
32	Paraguay	2278	28½	411.5
33	Scotland	2309	28	404.5
34	Venezuela	2253	28	401.5
35	Syria	2200	28	373.0
36	France	2358	27½	425.0
37	Uruguay	2270	27½	381.5
38	Dominican Republic	2229	27½	380.5
39	Sri Lanka	2200	27½	373.5
40	Hong Kong	2235	27½	367.0
41	Wales	2324	27	403.5
42	Peru	2271	27	399.5
43	Guyana	2200	27	369.0
44	Japan	2200	27	359.0
45	Luxembourg	2219	27	353.0
46	Faroe Islands	2200	27	346.0
47	Belgium	2223	26½	374.5
48	Guatemala	2200	26½	358.0
49	Morocco	2200	26½	356.0
50	Tunisia	2279	26	390.0
51	Ecuador	2266	26	381.5
52	Bolivia	2213	26	368.0
53	Trinidad and Tobago	2200	26	356.5
54	Jordan	2200	26	327.5
55	Jamaica	2200	25½
56	Puerto Rico	2214	25	373.0
57	Malaysia	2200	25	365.5
58	Libya	2200	23½	321.0
59	Mauritania	2200	23½	319.5
60	Andorra	2200	22½
61	United States Virgin Islands	2200	22
62	Bermuda	2200	20½
63	Zaire	2200	16
64	United Arab Emirates	2200	12½	328.5
65	British Virgin Islands	2213	12½	327.5

Individual medals

• Board 1: Viktor Korchnoi 9/11 = 81.8%
• Board 2: Adam Kuligowski 10/13 = 76.9%
• Board 3: Georgi Tringov 8½/11 = 77.3%
• Board 4: Glenn Bordonada 7/9 = 77.8%
• 1st reserve: James Tarjan 9½/11 = 86.4%
• 2nd reserve: John Turner 6½/7 = 92.9%

Women's results

Thirty-two nations took part in the women's Olympiad. From four preliminary groups the teams were split into four finals. In the event of a draw, the tie-break was decided first by match points, then by using the Sonneborn-Berger system.

The Soviet team was back, and led by newly crowned world champion Chiburdanidze they secured the gold medals in a superior display, as well as all four individual board prizes. On the reserve board, Akhmilovskaya won all of her ten games, the only perfect score in Olympiad history. Hungary and West Germany took silver and bronze, respectively.

Preliminaries

• Group 1: 1. USSR, 2. England, 3. Netherlands, 4. France, 5. Mexico, 6. Finland, 7. Venezuela, 8. New Zealand.
• Group 2: 1. Hungary, 2. West Germany, 3. USA, 4. Argentina, 5. Denmark, 6. Scotland, 7. Iceland, 8. Monaco.
• Group 3: 1. Yugoslavia, 2. Poland, 3. India, 4. Sweden, 5. Canada, 6. Brazil, 7. Wales, 8. Bolivia.
• Group 4: 1. Spain, 2. Bulgaria, 3. Romania, 4. Australia, 5. Colombia, 6. Japan, 7. Puerto Rico, 8. Uruguay.

Finals

Final A

#	Country	Players	Average rating	Points	MP	S-B
1	Soviet Union	Chiburdanidze, Gaprindashvili, Alexandria, Akhmilovskaya	2370	16
2	Hungary	Verőci-Petronić, Ivánka, Makai, Kas	2260	11	8	43.00
3	West Germany	Laakmann, Fischdick, Hund, Weichert	2143	11	8	37.50

#	Country	Average rating	Points	MP
4	Yugoslavia	2197	11	7
5	Poland	2147	10½
6	Spain	2043	8½	6
7	Bulgaria	2175	8½	4
8	England	2130	7½

Final B

#	Country	Average rating	Points	MP
9	Sweden	2072	15	13
10	Romania	2183	15	11
11	Netherlands	2140	10
12	Argentina	1953	9½	7
13	France	1935	9½	4
14	United States	2110	9
15	India	1800	8½
16	Australia	1975	7½

Final C

#	Country	Average rating	Points	MP	S-B
17	Denmark	1967	13	9	42.25
18	Canada	1907	13	9	41.25
19	Colombia	1880	12
20	Brazil	1807	11½	9
21	Finland	1893	11½	8
22	Scotland	1813	1
23	Japan	1802	6½
24	Mexico	1800	5½

Final D

#	Country	Average rating	Points	MP	S-B
25	Wales	1880	17½
26	Iceland	1800	13½
27	Venezuela	1800	12
28	Bolivia	1800	10½	7	34.25
29	Uruguay	1800	10½	7	26.00
30	New Zealand	1800	10½	7	25.25
31	Monaco	1800	5½
32	Puerto Rico	1800	4

Individual medals

• Board 1: Maia Chiburdanidze 9/11 = 81.8%
• Board 2: Nona Gaprindashvili 9½/11 = 86.4%
• Board 3: Nana Alexandria 8/10 = 80%
• Reserve: Elena Akhmilovskaya 10/10 = 100%

References

• 23rd Chess Olympiad: Buenos Aires 1978 OlimpBase