21st Chess Olympiad

The 21st Chess Olympiad (French: La 21^e Olympiade d'échecs), 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 June 6 and June 30, 1974, in Nice, France.

Bobby Fischer was still the reigning World Champion, but had not played a single game of tournament chess since he won the title in 1972 and was not present in Nice either. However, the American team still managed to secure third place in his absence.

For the same reason, for the second time in a row, the Soviet team was not led by the current world champion. It did, however, feature three previous (Tal, Petrosian, and Spassky) as well as one future champion (Karpov). The team won by 8½ points, the biggest victory margin yet, and took home their twelfth consecutive gold medals, with Yugoslavia and the United States taking the silver and bronze, respectively.

With a complete lack of tension in the championship race, the tournament had more than its share of political tension. In Final B, the Tunisian team refused to play Israel, so the score was computed according to Elo ratings, and awarded as a 3–1 win for the Israeli team.

Due to their apartheid policies, both South Africa and Rhodesia were expelled from FIDE with three rounds to go. The South African team withdrew from the tournament, and their Final C results were deleted from the overall standings. After FIDE president Max Euwe failed to have Rhodesia ejected from the Olympiad, they were allowed to finish the tournament and won Final E, with help from default victories against Iraq and Algeria who refused to play them in protest.

Results

Preliminaries

A total of 74 teams were divided into eight preliminary groups of nine or ten teams each, from which the top two advanced to Final A, no. 3-4 to Final B, etc. Preliminary head-to-head results were carried over to the finals, so no team met any other team more than once. All preliminary groups and finals were played as round-robin tournaments.

The results were as follows:

Group 1:

Group 2:

Group 3:

Group 4:

Only two players from the Nicaraguan team arrived in Nice, and after the team were forced to forfeit their first match against Chile, Nicaragua withdrew from the tournament. The forfeit was deleted from the Group 4 standings.

Group 5:

Group 6:

Group 7:

Group 8:

Finals

Final «A»

Matches played in semi-finals are italicized.

Final «B»

Matches played in semi-finals and not played are italicized.

Tunisia refused to play Israel because of political reasons. The score was set by default.

Final «C»

Matches played in semi-finals and not played are italicized.

South Africa were expelled from FIDE with three rounds to go and withdrew from the event. Their scores were set as friendlies.

Final «D»

Matches played in semi-finals are italicized.

Final «E»

Matches played in semi-finals and not played are italicized.

Iraq and Algeria refused to play Rhodesia because of political reasons. The scores were set by default.

Individual medals

Board 1: Anatoly Karpov 12 / 14 = 85.7%
Board 2: Andreas Dückstein 10 / 12 = 83.3%
Board 3: Boris Spassky 11 / 15 = 73.3%
Board 4: Tigran Petrosian 12½ / 14 = 89.3%
1st reserve: Mikhail Tal 11½ / 15 = 76.7%
2nd reserve: James Tarjan and Franciscus Kuijpers 11 / 13 = 84.6%

References

^ Although commonly referred to as the men's division, this section is open to both male and female players.
^ The South African team was expelled from FIDE with three rounds remaining. Their matches were deleted from the overall standings.
^ Mrs. Karen Fyfe-Reussner and Mrs. Renata Bushnaq were allowed to enter the competition due to lack of a few players from basic squad. Bahamas, who were relegated to final E claimed this violated the rules stating no further alterations are possible after deadline. Apparently no one cared.

21st Chess Olympiad: Nice 1974 OlimpBase