17th Chess Olympiad
The 17th Chess Olympiad, organized by FIDE and comprising an open[1] team tournament, as well as several other events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between October 23 and November 20, 1966, in Havana, Cuba.
The Soviet team with 6 GMs, led by world champion Petrosian, lived up to expectations and won their eighth consecutive gold medals, with the United States and Hungary taking the silver and bronze, respectively.
Ex-champion Tal was beaten up in a bar shortly before the Olympiad and missed the first five rounds due to his injuries.
When Hungary and Yugoslavia tied on both game and match points, and they had drawn 2-2 with each other, the rules dictated that the final ranking would be decided by using the Neustadtl score - but not which version of it. A socalled unweighted score was used, which placed Hungary ahead of Yugoslavia, giving them the bronze medals. Had the weighted variant been used instead, the result would have been the other way around.
Results
Preliminaries
A total of 52 teams entered the competition and were divided into seven preliminary groups of seven or eight teams each. The top two from each group advanced to Final A, the teams placed 3rd-4th to Final B, no. 5-6 to Final C, and the rest to Final D. All preliminary groups and finals were played as round-robin tournaments. The preliminary results were as follows:
- Group 1: 1. Soviet Union, 2. Spain, 3. Switzerland, 4. Sweden, 5. Philippines, 6. Uruguay, 7. Monaco, 8. Hong Kong.
- Group 2: 1. Yugoslavia, 2. Iceland, 3. Indonesia, 4. Austria, 5. Turkey, 6. Mongolia, 7. Mexico.
- Group 3: 1. United States, 2. Norway, 3. Poland, 4. Israel, 5. Ecuador, 6. Portugal, 7. Bolivia.
- Group 4: 1. Argentina, 2. Denmark, 3. England, 4. France, 5. Ireland, 6. Chile, 7. South Africa.
- Group 5: 1. Czechoslovakia, 2. East Germany, 3. Canada, 4. Scotland, 5. Italy, 6. Luxembourg, 7. Cyprus.
- Group 6: 1. Hungary, 2. Cuba, 3. Netherlands, 4. Belgium, 5. Venezuela, 6. Tunisia, 7. Panama, 8. Lebanon.
- Group 7: 1. Romania, 2. Bulgaria, 3. Colombia, 4. Finland, 5. Greece, 6. Puerto Rico, 7. Morocco, 8. Nicaragua.
Final
Final A # Country Players Points MP Head-
to-headNS 1 Soviet Union Petrosian, Spassky, Tal, Stein, Korchnoi, Polugaevsky 39½ 2 United States Fischer, Byrne, Benko, Evans, Addison, Rossolimo 34½ 3 Hungary Portisch, Szabó, Bilek, Lengyel, Forintos, Bárczay 33½ 20 2 232.25 4 Yugoslavia Gligorić, Ivkov, Parma, Matanović, Matulović, Čirić 33½ 20 2 229.75 5 Argentina Najdorf, Panno, Bolbochán, Sanguineti, García, Schweber 30 6 Czechoslovakia Pachman, Hort, Filip, Kaválek, Jansa, Ujtelky 29½ 7 Bulgaria Minev, Bobotsov, Tringov, Padevsky, Kolarov, Popov 28½ 8 Romania Gheorghiu, Ciocâltea, Ghiţescu, Soós, Drimer, Stanciu 26½ 9 East Germany Uhlmann, Pietzsch, Fuchs, Malich, Zinn, Liebert 25½ 10 Denmark Larsen, Brinck-Claussen, Andersen, Enevoldsen, Holm, Pedersen 20 11 Iceland Friðrik Ólafsson, Ingi Randver Jóhannsson, Guðmundur Pálmason,
Freysteinn Þorbergsson, Gunnar Gunnarsson, Guðmundur Sigurjónsson19 12 Spain Pomar, Medina García, Menvielle Lacourrelle, Calvo Mínguez,
Franco Raymundo, Pérez Gonsalves18 13 Norway Johannessen, Zwaig, Hoen, Kristiansen, De Lange, Wibe 14 14 Cuba Jiménez Zerquera, Ortega, Cobo Arteaga, Rodríguez Gonzáles,
García Martínez, Santa Cruz12
Final B # Country Points MP 15 Netherlands 37 16 Poland 31½ 17 Austria 30 18 Switzerland 28½ 15 19 Israel 28½ 13 20 Finland 28 21 England 27½ 22 Colombia 26½ 23 Canada 25½ 24 Sweden 24½ 25 Belgium 23 26 France 20 27 Indonesia 18 28 Scotland 15½
Final C # Country Points MP 29 Italy 38 30 Mongolia 33½ 31 Philippines 31 32 Greece 29 33 Uruguay 28 34 Tunisia 26½ 35 Turkey 25½ 36 Venezuela 25 12 37 Portugal 25 10 38 Chile 23½ 9 39 Ecuador 23½ 8 40 Ireland 21 41 Puerto Rico 18½ 42 Luxembourg 16
Final D # Country Points MP 43 South Africa 28 44 Mexico 24½ 45 Bolivia 22 46 Monaco 20 47 Morocco 19½ 48 Nicaragua 17 49 Panama 16½ 50 Lebanon 11 3 51 Cyprus 11 2 52 Hong Kong 10½
Individual medals
- Board 1: Tigran Petrosian 11½ / 13 = 88.5%
- Board 2: Oscar Panno 14 / 18 = 77.8%
- Board 3: Mikhail Tal 12 / 13 = 92.3%
- Board 4: Christian Langeweg 12 / 15 = 80.0%
- 1st reserve: Viktor Korchnoi 10½ / 13 = 80.8%
- 2nd reserve: László Bárczay 11 / 12 = 91.7%
References
- ↑ Although commonly referred to as the men's division, this section is open to both male and female players.
- 17th Chess Olympiad: Havana 1966 OlimpBase
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