The 17th

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 an ...

( es, La 17^a Olimpíada de ajedrez), organized by FIDE 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 dist ...

, took place between October 23 and November 20, 1966, in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. 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 The term Neustadtl is the German name for: *Nové Mesto nad Váhom in Slovakia *Nové Město na Moravě in the Czech Republic *Novo Mesto Novo Mesto (; sl, Novo mesto; also known by other alternative names) is a city on a bend of the Krka Rive ...

– but not which version of it. A so-called ''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:

Final

: *HUN-born : : :

Final «A»

Final «B»

Final «C»

Final «D»

Individual medals

* Board 1:

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 ...

11½ / 13 = 88.5% * Board 2:

Oscar Panno Oscar Roberto Panno (born 17 March 1935 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine chess Grandmaster. Panno was the first top world chess player born in South America. Panno won the 2nd World Junior Chess Championship in 1953, ahead of such future stron ...

14 / 18 = 77.8% * Board 3:

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 ...

12 / 13 = 92.3% * Board 4: Christian Langeweg 12 / 15 = 80.0% * 1st reserve:

Viktor Korchnoi Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi ( rus, Ви́ктор Льво́вич Корчно́й, p=vʲiktər lʲvovʲɪtɕ kɐrtɕˈnoj; 23 March 1931 – 6 June 2016) was a Soviet (before 1976) and Swiss (after 1980) chess grandmaster (GM) and chess writer. H ...

10½ / 13 = 80.8% * 2nd reserve:

László Bárczay László Bárczay (21 February 1936 – 7 April 2016) was a Hungarian chess Grandmaster. In 1966 he was awarded the FIDE International Master title. At the 1966 Olympiad in Havana, he scored 11/12 (ten wins and two draws) as second reserve ...

11 / 12 = 91.7%

References

17th Chess Olympiad: Havana 1966
OlimpBase {{Chess Olympiads 17 Olympiad 17 Chess Olympiad 17 Olympiad 17 Chess Olympiad 17 20th century in Havana