22nd Chess Olympiad

The 22nd Chess Olympiad, organized by FIDE, took place between October 26 and November 10, 1976, in Haifa, Israel. For the first time, the event comprised both an open and a women's tournament.

Another first was the change in format. The growing number of teams (74 at the previous Olympiad) had made it impossible to continue with the previous system of round-robin preliminary and final groups, so beginning in Haifa, the open event was played as a Swiss system tournament (the women's event had fewer participants and did not use the Swiss system until 1980).

The first Swiss system Olympiad ended up with significantly fewer teams, however. International politics once again interfered in the world of sports, as a large number of FIDE member nations withdrew in protest against the Olympiad being held in Israel, a country many of them didn't recognize. Among the nations that stayed away from Haifa were all of the Arab countries, some of which took part in the alternative Against Chess Olympiad instead. Other absentees were the entire Eastern Bloc, including most of the usual medal candidates. A number of Eastern European players had recently defected, however, and now represented various Western countries.

In the absence of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Hungary, the US team had the highest average rating and had to be considered favourites, even without Bobby Fischer. In the end, they lived up to expectations and won the gold medals, by half a point. The Netherlands and England took home the silver and bronze, respectively.

Open event

Forty-eight nations played 13 rounds. In the event of a draw, the tie-break was decided first by match points, then by using the Buchholz system.

Open event

#	Country	Players	Average rating	Points
1	United States	Byrne, Kavalek, Evans, Tarjan, Lombardy, Commons	2535	37
2	Netherlands	Timman, Sosonko, Donner, Ree, Ligterink, Kuijpers	2490	36½
3	England	Miles, Keene, Hartston, Stean, Mestel, Nunn	2463	35½

#	Country	Average rating	Points	MP	Buchholz
4	Argentina	2513	33
5	West Germany	2485	31
6	Israel	2490	29½
7	Switzerland	2391	29
8	Canada	2428	28½	15
9	Spain	2399	28½	12
10	Colombia	2365	28
11	Norway	2331	27½	16
12	Sweden	2453	27½	15	376.5
13	Italy	2385	27½	15	361.5
14	Wales	2355	27½	15	359.0
15	Paraguay	2216	27½	14
16	Chile	2356	27½	13	380.5
17	Australia	2390	27½	13	367.5
18	Austria	2405	27½	13	366.0
19	Finland	2374	27½	13	346.5
20	Philippines	2418	27	17
21	New Zealand	2216	27	15
22	Iceland	2426	27	13
23	Venezuela	2275	26½	13
24	Belgium	2326	26½	11
25	Denmark	2340	26½	10
26	France	2320	26	14	351.0
27	Dominican Republic	2200	26	14	300.5
28	Uruguay	2203	26	13
29	Honduras	2200	26	9
30	Thailand	2200	25½	12
31	Iran	2303	25½	11	367.5
32	Costa Rica	2200	25½	11	324.0
33	Scotland	2321	25½	10
34	Guernsey	2200	25	14
35	Ireland	2214	25	12
36	Luxembourg	2250	24½	13
37	Guatemala	2200	24½	12	321.0
38	Japan	2200	24½	12	296.0
39	Hong Kong	2245	24½	12	291.5
40	Bolivia	2200	24½	11
41	Bermuda	2200	24
42	Andorra	2200	23
43	Monaco	2200	22
44	Faroe Islands	2201	21½
45	Papua New Guinea	2200	18
46	United States Virgin Islands	2200	15½
47	British Virgin Islands	2203	13½
48	Netherlands Antilles	2200	7½

Individual medals

• Board 1: Jan Timman 8½ / 11 = 77.3%
• Board 2: Gennadi Sosonko 6 / 8 = 75.0%
• Board 3: Marcelo Carrión 9 / 11 = 81.8%
• Board 4: Michael Stean 5½ / 8 = 68.8%
• 1st reserve: Boris de Greiff 5½ / 7 = 78.6%
• 2nd reserve: Kim Commons 7½ / 9 = 83.3%

Women's results

Twenty-three nations took part in the women's Olympiad. From four preliminary groups the teams were split into three finals. Israel, led by former World Championship challenger Kushnir, proved to be bad hosts by claiming the gold for themselves, ahead of England and Spain.

Preliminaries

• Group 1: 1. Israel, 2. Australia, 3. Argentina, 4. Colombia, 5. Austria.
• Group 2: 1. Netherlands, 2. Denmark, 3. Finland, 4. Canada, 5. Wales, 6. Japan.
• Group 3: 1. England, 2. Spain, 3. France, 4. Italy, 5. Sweden, 6. New Zealand.
• Group 4: 1. United States, 2. West Germany, 3. Philippines, 4. Ireland, 5. Switzerland, 6. Scotland.

Finals

Final A

#	Country	Players	Average rating	Points	MP
1	Israel	Kushnir, Kristol, Podrazhanskaya, Nudelman	2182	17
2	England	Hartston, Jackson, Pritchard, Caldwell	2115	11½	8
3	Spain	Ferrer, García, Pino García Padrón, Canela	1890	11½	7

#	Country	Average rating	Points	MP
4	United States	2112	10½
5	Netherlands	2182	9½
6	West Germany	2070	9
7	Australia	1958	8½
8	Denmark	1917	6½

Final B

#	Country	Average rating	Points	MP
9	Canada	1907	13½
10	Italy	1800	12
11	Argentina	1800	11½
12	Ireland	1897	10½
13	Finland	1852	10
14	France	1880	9½	6
15	Colombia	1800	9½	5
16	Philippines	1800	7

Final C

#	Country	Average rating	Points	MP
17	Switzerland	1875	12	10
18	Austria	1940	12	9
19	Sweden	2012	11½
20	Japan	1830	11
21	Scotland	1810	7½
22	Wales	1800	6½
23	New Zealand	1800	2½

Individual medals

• Board 1: Alla Kushnir 7½ / 8 = 93.8%
• Board 2: Nava Shterenberg 9 / 10 = 90.0%
• Board 3: Hyroko Maeda 6½ / 8 = 81.3%
• Reserve: Lea Nudelman 6½ / 7 = 92.9%