17th Chess Olympiad
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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.
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
- HUN-born
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