36th Chess Olympiad
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The 36th Chess Olympiad (Spanish: La 36a Olimpíada de ajedrez; Catalan: La 36a Olimpíada d'escacs), organized by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) and comprising an open[note 1] and a women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between October 14 and October 31, 2004, in Calvià on the Spanish island of Mallorca. There were 129 teams in the open event and 87 in the women's event. In total, 1204 players were registered (some of whom did not play, though).
Both tournament sections were officiated by international arbiter Ignatius Leong (Singapore). Teams were paired across the 14 rounds of competition according to the Swiss system. The open division was played over four boards per round, whilst the women's was played over three. In the event of a draw, the tie-break was decided by 1. The Buchholz system; 2. Match points; 3. The Sonneborn-Berger system; and 4. The Median Buchholz system.
The time control for each game permitted each player 90 minutes for all their moves, with an additional 30 seconds increment for each player after each move, beginning with the first.
Open event
The open division was contested by 129 teams representing 125 nations. Spain, as hosts, fielded three teams, whilst the International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) and the International Physically Disabled Chess Association (IPCA) each provided one squad.
Led by first board Vasyl Ivanchuk, the seventh highest-rated player at the tournament, who recorded 9½ points over 13 rounds, and second reserve Sergey Karjakin who, aged just 14 years, won 6 of his 7 games (surrendering a draw only to American Gregory Kaidanov), Ukraine scored all four possible points in each of their first three matches before "only" defeating Russia 2½-1½ in the fourth round, eventually accumulating a nearly insurmountable three-point lead after the penultimate round. The Ukrainian team nevertheless scored three points against France and claimed their first title, three points ahead of Russia, who had entered the tournament as the top seed, having brought four of the tournament's nine highest-rated players, and as defending six-time champions.
Armenia, one of just four teams to draw a match with Ukraine, paced by second board Levon Aronian, who did not lose in 12 games, and third board Rafael Vaganian, who scored 8½ points in 11 games, lost 1½-2½ to Russia in the eighth round. Ultimately, on the strength of a 3½-½ final round defeat of Georgia, they tied Russia's 36½ points. Armenia were placed after Russia, though, on the Buchholz tie-breaker system employed by the Olympiad, and finished, as in the previous Olympiad, with the bronze medals. Hosts Spain, led by Alexei Shirov, just managed to squeeze into the top ten.
Notable absentees from the tournament were the no. 1 player in the world, Garry Kasparov, as well as classical World Champion Vladimir Kramnik and his challenger Peter Leko, who were just finishing their championship match (Kramnik retained his title with a 7–7 tie). FIDE Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov was present, however, and led Uzbekistan to 14th place by going undefeated in his 8 games (+4-0=4).
Open event # Country Players Average
ratingPoints Buchholz 1 Ukraine
Ivanchuk, Ponomariov, Volokitin, Moiseenko, Eljanov, Karjakin 2680 39½ 2 Russia
Morozevich, Svidler, Grischuk, Dreev, Khalifman, Zvjaginsev 2718 36½ 460.0 3 Armenia
Akopian, Aronian, Vaganian, Lputian, Sargissian, Minasian 2660 36½ 459.0 4 United States
Onischuk, Shabalov, Goldin, Kaidanov, Novikov, Gulko 2623 35 5 Israel
Gelfand, Sutovsky, Smirin, Avrukh, Huzman, Roiz 2670 34½ 6 India
Viswanathan Anand, Krishnan Sasikiran, Pendyala Harikrishna,
Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Abhijit Kunte, Chanda Sandipan2655 34 7 Cuba
Domínguez, Bruzón, Delgado, Nogueiras, Arencibia, Quezada 2596 33½ 8 Netherlands
Van Wely, Sokolov, Tiviakov, Timman, Van den Doel, Nijboer 2641 33 9 Bulgaria
Georgiev, Delchev, Cheparinov, Spasov, Chatalbashev, Radulski 2584 32½ 453.0 10 Spain
Shirov, Vallejo Pons, Illescas Córdoba, Cifuentes Parada, Romero Holmes, Arizmendi Martínez 2643 32½ 439.5
# Country Average
ratingPoints Buchholz MP 11 Greece
2569 32½ 427.5 12 Poland
2624 32 445.5 13 Switzerland
2559 32 442.5 14 Uzbekistan
2550 32 440.5 15 Serbia and Montenegro
2568 32 435.0 16 Germany
2617 32 430.0 17 Slovenia
2575 32 427.5 18 Belarus
2609 32 424.0 19 Philippines
2502 32 422.5 20 Romania
2590 32 417.5 21 Georgia
2621 31½ 462.0 22 Azerbaijan
2615 31½ 450.5 23 France
2621 31½ 449.0 24 China
2612 31½ 438.5 25 Bosnia and Herzegovina
2532 31½ 428.0 26 Kazakhstan
2483 31½ 425.0 27 Lithuania
2542 31½ 420.0 28 Denmark
2563 31½ 419.5 29 Czech Republic
2589 31 445.0 30 England
2653 31 427.0 31 Hungary
2614 31 425.5 32 Estonia
2544 31 423.5 17 33 Latvia
2539 31 423.5 15 34 Argentina
2544 31 419.5 35 Australia
2488 31 418.5 36 Moldova
2589 30½ 432.5 37 Slovakia
2545 30½ 431.0 38 Canada
2494 30½ 426.0 39 Norway
2549 30½ 419.5 40 Chile
2486 30½ 407.5 41 Bangladesh
2485 30½ 396.5 42 North Macedonia
2521 30 419.0 43 Ireland
2454 30 403.0 44 Spain "B"
2494 29½ 424.0 45 Sweden
2569 29½ 422.0 46 Croatia
2562 29½ 415.5 47 Iceland
2496 29½ 413.5 48 Indonesia
2397 29½ 408.0 49 Finland
2456 29½ 406.5 50 Turkey
2365 29½ 404.0 51 Vietnam
2515 29 416.5 52 Scotland
2497 29 411.5 53 Iran
2460 29 405.0 54 Mexico
2473 29 403.0 55 South Africa
2387 29 395.0 16 56 Colombia
2427 29 395.0 13 57 IPCA 2348 29 394.5 58 Belgium
2444 28½ 406.5 59 Brazil
2481 28½ 406.0 60 Italy
2476 28½ 400.5 14 61 Tajikistan
2303 28½ 400.5 12 62 Austria
2444 28½ 396.5 63 Dominican Republic
2354 28½ 387.0 14 64 Ecuador
2431 28½ 387.0 13 65 Bolivia
2332 28½ 383.5 66 Peru
2410 28½ 355.0 67 Singapore
2437 28 403.5 68 Andorra
2400 28 393.0 69 Pakistan
2298 28 381.5 70 Malaysia
2241 28 370.0 71 Mongolia
2381 27½ 402.0 72 Portugal
2424 27½ 401.0 73 Kyrgyzstan
2341 27½ 397.0 74 Albania
2410 27½ 385.5 75 Faroe Islands
2281 27½ 377.0 76 Morocco
2342 27½ 356.0 77 Venezuela
2354 27 398.0 78 Paraguay
2305 27 390.0 79 Costa Rica
2399 27 386.0 80 Tunisia
2363 27 384.5 81 Spain "C"
2334 27 383.5 82 Luxembourg
2325 27 381.5 83 Iraq
2276 27 369.5 84 Uruguay
2370 26½ 397.5 85 New Zealand
2316 26½ 383.0 86 Nicaragua
2281 26½ 375.5 87 Guatemala
2252 26½ 372.0 88 Japan
2136 26½ 351.0 89 Wales
2289 26 382.5 90 Lebanon
2337 26 379.0 91 Sri Lanka
2188 26 368.5 92 Thailand
2264 26 367.5 93 Honduras
2226 26 365.0 94 Puerto Rico
2212 26 358.0 95 Botswana
2174 25½ 358.5 96 Kenya
1986 25½ 340.5 97 IBCA 2358 25 370.5 98 Barbados
2279 25 368.5 99 Libya
2260 25 358.5 100 Angola
2245 24½ 376.5 101 Hong Kong
2141 24½ 363.0 102 Palestine
2070 24½ 362.5 103 Jamaica
2184 24½ 355.5 104 Uganda
2187 24½ 350.0 105 Monaco
2137 24½ 347.0 106 Nepal
2179 24½ 301.0 107 Panama
1906 24 352.5 108 Namibia
2186 24 336.0 109 Cyprus
2202 23½ 360.5 110 Liechtenstein
2119 23½ 348.5 111 Mauritania
2207 23½ 341.0 112 San Marino
2122 23½ 301.0 113 Malta
2157 23½ 300.5 114 Macau
2127 23½ 299.0 115 Afghanistan
1866 23½ 248.0 116 Trinidad and Tobago
2137 23 357.5 117 Suriname
2201 23 344.5 118 British Virgin Islands
1904 23 314.5 119 Netherlands Antilles
2098 22 293.5 120 Nigeria
2152 22 276.5 121 Jersey
2170 21½ 313.5 122 Fiji
2003 21½ 282.5 123 Guernsey
1812 21 124 Aruba
1832 20½ 125 Bermuda
1824 18½ 1 126 Rwanda
1750 17 127 Papua New Guinea
1866 15½ 1 128 United States Virgin Islands
1600 13½ 129 Seychelles
1766 11½
1 Bermuda actually scored 22 and Papua New Guinea 23 points, but because some of their players refused to submit to doping tests, the points scored by those players were deducted from the final scores: 3½ points from Bermuda and 7½ from Papua New Guinea.
Group prizes
In addition to the overall medals, prizes were given out to the best teams in five different seeding groups—in other words, the teams who exceeded their seeding the most. Overall medal winners were not eligible for group prizes.
Group Prizes Group Seeding
rangeTeam Seed Overall
finishA 1–25 United States
10 4 B 26–51 Switzerland
29 13 C 52–77 Ireland
54 43 D 78–103 Tajikistan
83 61 E 104–129 Japan
112 87
Individual medals
- Performance rating:
Baadur Jobava 2842
- Board 1:
Evgenij Ermenkov 10½ / 12 = 87.5%
- Board 2:
Mohamed Tissir 7½ / 9 = 83.3%
- Board 3:
Rafael Vaganian 9½ / 12 = 79.2%
- Board 4:
Baadur Jobava 8½ / 10 = 85.0%
- 1st reserve:
Vaidas Sakalauskas 6 / 7 = 85.7%
- 2nd reserve:
Sergey Karjakin and
Ibrahim Chahrani 6½ / 7 = 92.9%
Women's event
The women's division was contested by 87 teams representing 84 nations. Spain, as hosts, fielded two teams, whilst the International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) and the International Physically Disabled Chess Association (IPCA) each provided one squad.
China, led by first board Xie Jun (ex-World Champion) and second board Xu Yuhua (future champion), entered the competition as top seed and defending triple champions and quickly took the lead, conceding just two draws in their first five matches. They then defeated the silver and bronze medallists from the previous Olympiad, Russia and Poland (each 2–1), in the sixth and eighth rounds, respectively. Eventually they carried a six-point lead into a tenth round match with second placed United States.
Susan Polgar (another ex-World Champion), who entered the tournament as the second highest-rated player and achieved the best performance rating of all, drew Xie Jun, while Irina Krush won her second board game against Xu Yuhua. A draw by Anna Zatonskih against Zhao Xue gave the Americans a 2–1 win over the Chinese team. In rounds eleven and twelve, China drew Hungary and lost to Georgia, whilst the US team defeated Slovakia and then scored a 2½-½ victory over Hungary, drawing within three points of China with two rounds remaining. China, though, defeated sixth-seed India and 12th-seed Slovakia in the final two rounds, scoring four points to preserve what was ultimately a three-point win and to clinch the Vera Menchik Trophy for a fourth consecutive time.
Second-seed Russia were led by Nadezhda Kosintseva, who won top honours on the first reserve board for scoring 10 points in 12 rounds. The Russians were only in eighth place after ten rounds but had advanced to fourth place entering the penultimate round, where they faced Georgia, who they trailed by half a point. Although first board Maya Chiburdanidze (ex-World Champion) and second board Nana Dzagnidze, who both scored 8½ points for their team over the event, drew their matches, third board Lela Javakhishvili lost to Kosintseva, giving the Russian team a half-point lead over Georgia; although Georgia defeated Ukraine 2½-½ in the final round, Russia managed to secure two points against France, equalling Georgia's total and winning the bronze medals on tie-breaks.
Newly crowned World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova disappointed as captain of the Bulgarian team, scoring only 5½ points in 11 games. Bulgaria eventually finished in 14th place.
# Country Players Average
ratingPoints Buchholz 1 China
Xie Jun, Xu Yuhua, Zhao Xue, Huang Qian 2514 31 2 United States
Polgar, Krush, Zatonskih, Shahade 2490 28 3 Russia
Kosteniuk, T. Kosintseva, Kovalevskaya, N. Kosintseva 2491 27½ 346.0 4 Georgia
Chiburdanidze, Dzagnidze, Javakhishvili, Lomineishvili 2470 27½ 339.0 5 France
Skripchenko, Marie Sebag, Silvia Collas, Sophie Milliet 2417 25½ 6 Hungary
Mádl, Vajda, Gara, Lakos 2376 25 348.5 7 Slovakia
Repkova, Pokorná, Hagarova, Borošová 2377 25 337.0 8 England
Hunt, Houska, Richards, Buckley 2293 25 334.5 9 India
Humpy Koneru, Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi, Dronavalli Harika, Nisha Mohota 2435 24½ 352.0 10 Poland
Radziewicz, Soćko, Dworakowska, Zielinska 2428 24½ 340.0
# Country Average
ratingPoints Buchholz MP 11 Armenia
2374 24½ 330.5 12 Netherlands
2372 24½ 317.5 13 Lithuania
2311 24 329.5 14 Bulgaria
2410 24 329.0 15 Sweden
2301 24 327.0 16 Serbia and Montenegro
2406 24 324.5 17 Germany
2365 24 323.5 18 Ukraine
2456 23½ 342.0 19 Slovenia
2288 23½ 325.5 20 Romania
2408 23½ 318.5 21 Vietnam
2308 23½ 317.0 22 Azerbaijan
2317 23 325.0 23 Latvia
2294 23 323.0 24 Cuba
2303 23 321.0 25 Israel
2247 23 320.5 26 Moldova
2296 23 313.5 27 Belarus
2278 23 308.0 28 Czech Republic
2308 22½ 313.5 29 Greece
2343 22½ 311.5 30 Argentina
2274 22½ 302.0 31 Switzerland
2250 22½ 298.0 32 Uzbekistan
2235 22½ 293.0 33 Kazakhstan
2317 22 315.5 34 Iran
2208 22 313.5 35 Mongolia
2263 22 313.0 36 Estonia
2229 22 290.0 37 Colombia
2115 21½ 303.0 38 Norway
2149 21½ 302.5 39 Croatia
2243 21½ 299.5 40 Malaysia
2084 21½ 299.0 41 Canada
2123 21½ 277.0 42 Finland
2144 21 299.0 43 Spain
2242 21 297.0 44 Spain "B"
2187 21 296.5 45 Bosnia and Herzegovina
2146 21 293.0 46 Italy
2213 21 292.0 47 Australia
2243 20½ 306.0 48 Philippines
1940 20½ 295.0 49 Portugal
2124 20½ 292.0 50 Venezuela
2147 20½ 288.5 51 Iceland
2148 20½ 288.0 52 Wales
1975 20½ 285.0 53 Turkey
2082 20½ 283.5 54 Brazil
2072 20½ 282.5 55 Austria
2122 20 292.0 56 North Macedonia
2002 20 288.5 57 Mexico
2134 20 281.5 58 Kyrgyzstan
1760 20 279.0 59 Indonesia
1775 20 277.5 60 Guatemala
1748 20 276.0 61 Peru
2138 20 274.5 62 Albania
1749 20 265.0 63 Ecuador
2224 19½ 295.0 64 Denmark
2133 19½ 289.0 65 Lebanon
1942 19½ 282.0 66 IPCA 2080 19½ 270.0 67 Iraq
1704 19½ 229.5 68 South Africa
1875 19 291.0 69 Bangladesh
2120 19 276.5 70 Tajikistan
1600 19 261.5 71 Bolivia
1763 19 259.0 72 Costa Rica
1764 19 226.5 73 Botswana
1884 19 220.5 74 Luxembourg
1981 18½ 292.5 75 IBCA 1875 18½ 257.0 76 Puerto Rico
1878 18½ 231.5 77 Dominican Republic
2023 18 275.5 78 New Zealand
1899 18 242.0 79 Sri Lanka
1600 18 233.0 80 Ireland
1891 17½ 81 Fiji
1600 16½ 82 Libya
1695 13½ 83 Japan
1716 12½ 84 Trinidad and Tobago
1600 12 209.0 85 Honduras
1600 12 206.5 86 Kenya
1600 11 87 United States Virgin Islands
1600 8
Group prizes
In addition to the overall medals, prizes were given out to the best teams in five different seeding groups—in other words, the teams who exceeded their seeding the most. Overall medal winners were not eligible for group prizes.
Group Prizes Group Seeding
rangeTeam Seed Overall
finishA 1–17 Georgia
4 4 B 18–34 England
27 8 C 35–51 Uzbekistan
37 32 D 52–69 Colombia
55 37 E 70–87 Kyrgyzstan
75 58
Individual medals
- Performance rating:
Susan Polgar 2622
- Board 1:
Viktorija Čmilytė 8½ / 11 = 77.3%
- Board 2:
Szidonia Vajda and
Corina Peptan 9 / 12 = 75.0%
- Board 3:
Zhao Xue and
Irine Kharisma Sukandar 10 / 12 = 83.3%
- Reserve:
Nadezhda Kosintseva 10 / 12 = 83.3%
Overall title
The Nona Gaprindashvili Trophy is awarded to the nation that has the best average rank in the open and women's divisions. Where two or more teams are tied, they are ordered by best single finish in either division and then by total number of points scored.
The trophy, named after the former women's World Champion (1961–78), was created by FIDE in 1997.
# | Team | Open division | Women's division | Average |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | 2 | 3 | 2½ |
2 | ![]() | 4 | 2 | 3 |
3 | ![]() | 3 | 11 | 7 |
Controversies
Azmaiparashvili incident
Prior to the closing ceremony of the Olympiad, FIDE vice president Zurab Azmaiparashvili attempted to ascend the stage in order to inform the presenter of the Nona Gaprindashvili Trophy that the latter ought more clearly to explain Gaprindashvili's contributions to the game of chess (Gaprindashvili had been World Champion for 17 years). Security officers, in conjunction with local police, did not permit Azmaiparashvili access to tournament organizers, and a struggle ensued after which Azmaiparashvili, having sustained several injuries, was arrested by the local law enforcement. He secured his release on bail for € 500 after having been held for 40 hours, and the charges against him were later dropped.
Azmaiparashvili and FIDE averred that Azmaiparashvili was detained and physically accosted despite he had properly and clearly [displayed] his VIP credentials,[1] whilst representatives of the Spanish chess federation ("Federación Española de Ajedrez") and tournament organizers blamed Azmaiparashvili for the incident, saying that he without any previous provocation, assaulted [an] agent with a head butt to [the] mouth.[2]
Drug testing
Having been formally recognized by the International Olympic Committee in 1999, in preparation for prospective inclusion in future iterations of the Olympic Games, FIDE implemented (in 2001) doping restrictions consistent with those adopted by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Two players, Shaun Press of Papua New Guinea and Bobby Miller of Bermuda, refused, for various reasons, to submit urine samples for analysis.[3][4] Both players appeared before the FIDE Doping Hearing panel, which decided to cancel the players' performances (Press had scored 7½ points in 14 games, while Miller had scored 3½ points in 9 games), reducing the final score of Papua New Guinea to 15½ (from 23) and that of Bermuda to 18½ (from 22).
Associated events
Concomitant to the tournaments were several chess-related events planned by the organizing committee of the Olympiad, some under the auspices of FIDE; the events were known collectively as the First Chess Festival Calvià 2004. Within the festival were held simultaneous exhibitions, game demonstrations and lectures by top Spanish players, and several secondary tournaments, including one for amateur players, a rapid chess event for players aged under 16, and one for senior players.
Chess classes were introduced into the primary and secondary schools, as well as senior centers, in and around Calvià in an effort to promote chess generally, and chess films were screened on the beaches of Calvià every weeknight during the Olympiad. Chess-oriented art was displayed at an International Chess Fair, with prizes for top works awarded by a jury.
Footnotes
Notes
- ^ Although commonly referred to as the men's division, this section is open to both male and female players.
Sources
- ^ "FIDE Vice President held in custody by Spanish Police, after being heavily beaten up". FIDE. 2004-10-30. Archived from the original on 2004-12-04. Retrieved 2021-12-23.
- ^ "FIDE Olympiad - Calvia, ESP Press Release by organisers on the Azmaiparashvilli arrest". Chess Center. 2004-10-31. Archived from the original on 2004-12-07. Retrieved 2021-12-23.
- ^ Decision of the FIDE Doping Hearing Panel (Miller)
- ^ Decision of the FIDE Doping Hearing Panel (Press)
External links
- 36th Chess Olympiad: Calvia 2004 OlimpBase
- Olympiad open division detailed results
- Olympiad women's division detailed results
- This Week in Chess Olympiad round-by-round summaries Archived 2005-01-07 at the Wayback Machine
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