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16th Chess Olympiad

An official medal from the Olympiad.

David Ben-Gurion presenting the trophy to the winning USSR team

The 16th Chess Olympiad, organized by FIDE and comprising an open team tournament, as well as several other events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between November 2 and November 25, 1964, in Tel Aviv, Israel.

The Soviet team with 6 GMs, led by world champion Petrosian, lived up to expectations and won their seventh consecutive gold medals, with Yugoslavia and West Germany taking the silver and bronze, respectively.

Results

Preliminaries

A total of 50 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:

With Australia making its debut, this was the first Olympiad where all six continents were represented.

Final

Final A
# Country Players Points MP Head-
to-head
1 Soviet Union Petrosian, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Keres, Stein, Spassky 36½
2 Yugoslavia Gligorić, Ivkov, Matanović, Parma, Udovčić, Matulović 32
3 West Germany Unzicker, Darga, Schmid, Pfleger, Mohrlok, Bialas 30½
4 Hungary Portisch, Szabó, Bilek, Lengyel, Forintos, Flesch 30
5 Czechoslovakia Pachman, Filip, Hort, Kaválek, Jansa, Blatný 28½
6 United States Reshevsky, Benko, Saidy, Bisguier, Byrne, Addison 27½
7 Bulgaria Padevsky, Tringov, Bobotsov, Popov, Milev, Spiridonov 27 13 3
8 Romania Ghiţescu, Gheorghiu, Ciocâltea, Radovici, Mititelu, Botez 27 13 1
9 Argentina Eliskases, García, Schweber, Wexler, Cruz 26
10 Poland Doda, Bednarski, Śliwa, Filipowicz, Balcerowski, Schmidt 24
11 Netherlands Kuijpers, Bouwmeester, Langeweg, Zuidema, Prins 21
12 Canada Yanofsky, Anderson, Vranesic, Macskasy, Suttles, Witt 19
13 Spain Pomar, Medina García, Saborido, Menvielle Lacourrelle, Mora, Pérez Gonsalves 17½ 5
14 Israel Porath, Kraidman, Domnitz, Aloni, Guthi, Stepak 17½ 3
Final B
# Country Points MP
15 East Germany 38½
16 Sweden 32
17 Denmark 31½
18 England 31
19 Peru 27½ 15
20 Austria 27½ 14
21 Cuba 26
22 Norway 25½ 14
23 Mongolia 25½ 13
24 Chile 24
25 Philippines 22½
26 Ecuador 18
27 Paraguay 17½
28 Scotland 17
Final C
# Country Points MP
29 Iceland 37½
30 Switzerland 36½
31 Colombia 35 24
32 Finland 35 19
33 Venezuela 30½
34 France 29½
35 Greece 27½
36 Iran 23½
37 India 22
38 Puerto Rico 21½
39 Turkey 20½
40 Mexico 20
41 Ireland 13
42 Monaco 12
Final D
# Country Points
43 Australia 22½
44 South Africa 18
45 Bolivia 15½
46 Uruguay 14½
47 Portugal 14
48 Luxembourg 12
49 Dominican Republic 10½
50 Cyprus 5

Individual medals

At the other end of the spectrum, Milton Ioannidis of Cyprus lost all of his 4 games, giving him a total score at the Olympiads of 0 / 24 = 0.0%.

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