The 14th

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 and ...

(german: Die 14. Schacholympiade), organized by

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

and comprising an openAlthough commonly referred to as the ''men's division'', this section is open to both male and female players. team tournament, as well as several other events designed to promote the game of

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

, took place between October 26 and November 9, 1960, in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

. The Soviet team with six grandmasters, led by world champion

Mikhail Tal Mikhail Nekhemyevich Tal; rus, Михаил Нехемьевич Таль, ''Mikhail Nekhem'yevich Tal' '', ; sometimes transliterated ''Mihails Tals'' or ''Mihail Tal'' (9 November 1936 – 28 June 1992) was a Soviet-Latvian chess player ...

, lived up to expectations and won their fifth consecutive gold medals, with the United States and Yugoslavia taking the silver and bronze, respectively. In a reversal of fortune from the previous Olympiad, the East German hosts finished 9th, right behind rivals West Germany. Unlike the last time, however, the match between the two was a tight affair that ended in a 2–2 draw.

Results

Preliminaries

A total of 40 teams entered the competition and were divided into four preliminary groups of 10 teams each. The top three from each group advanced to Final A, the teams placed 4th–6th to Final B, and the rest to Final C. All preliminary groups as well as Finals A and B were played as

round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament (or all-go-away-tournament) is a competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero ...

s, while Final C with 16 teams was played as an 11-round

Swiss system tournament A Swiss-system tournament is a non-eliminating tournament format that features a fixed number of rounds of competition, but considerably fewer than for a round-robin tournament; thus each competitor (team or individual) does not play all the other ...

. Group 1 was won by Bulgaria, ahead of Yugoslavia and the host nation. Norway, Finland, and Israel took the places 4–6, while Indonesia, France, Albania, and Malta finished at the bottom of the group. The Soviet Union took first place in group 2, well ahead of Argentina and the Netherlands. Poland, Austria, and India made up the middle part of the group, while Portugal, the Philippines, Italy, and Monaco had to settle for the bottom. Group 3 was won by England, ahead of Czechoslovakia and Hungary. The three Nordic nations Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland had to settle for Final B. Meanwhile, Mongolia, Tunisia, Greece, and Bolivia finished at the bottom of the group. The United States clinched group 4, ahead of West Germany and Romania. Spain, Chile, and Cuba made up the middle part of the group, while Belgium, Ecuador, Ireland, and Lebanon completed the field. * Group 1: * Group 2: * Group 3: * Group 4:

Final

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-76052-0335, Schacholympiade, Tal (UdSSR) gegen Fischer (USA)

: : : Final A Final B Final C

Individual medals

* Board 1: Karl Robatsch 13½ / 16 = 84.4% * Board 2:

Mikhail Botvinnik Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, ( – May 5, 1995) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster. The sixth World Chess Champion, he also worked as an electrical engineer and computer scientist and was a pioneer in computer chess. Botvinnik ...

10½ / 13 = 80.8% * Board 3:

Paul Keres Paul Keres (; 7 January 1916 – 5 June 1975) was an Estonian chess grandmaster and chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, and narrowly missed a chance at a World Chess Championship match on five ...

10½ / 13 = 80.8% * Board 4:

Lhamsuren Myagmarsuren Lkhamsurengiin Myagmarsuren ( mn, Лхамсүрэнгийн Мягмарсүрэн; born February 17, 1938) is a Mongolian chess master. He won the West Asian zonal tournament in 1966. and tied for 19-20th place in the Interzonal tournament in ...

and Tan Hoan Liong 16½ / 20 = 82.5% * 1st reserve:

Vassily Smyslov Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov ( rus, Васи́лий Васи́льевич Смысло́в, Vasíliy Vasíl'yevich Smyslóv; 24 March 1921 – 27 March 2010) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster, who was World Chess Champion from 1957 t ...

11½ / 13 = 88.5% * 2nd reserve:

Tigran Petrosian Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian (, ; 17 June 1929 – 13 August 1984) was a Soviet-Armenian chess grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his almost-impenetrable defensive playing style, ...

12 / 13 = 92.3%

References

14th Chess Olympiad: Leipzig 1960
OlimpBase

{{Chess Olympiads 14 Olympiad 14 Chess Olympiad 14 Olympiad 14 Chess Olympiad 14 Chess in East Germany