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17th Chess Olympiad

The official poster for the Olympiad.

The 17th 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 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:

Final

Final A
# Country Players Points MP Head-
to-head		 NS
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 Sigurjónsson		 19
12 Spain Pomar, Medina García, Menvielle Lacourrelle, Calvo Mínguez,
Franco Raymundo, Pérez Gonsalves		 18
13 Norway Johannessen, Zwaig, Hoen, Kristiansen, De Lange, Wibe 14
14 Cuba Jiménez Zerquera, Ortega, Cobo Arteaga, Rodríguez Gonzáles,
García Martínez, Santa Cruz		 12
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

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