The 24th

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 ...

( mt, L-24 Olimpijadi taċ-Ċess), 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. and a women's 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 November 20 and December 6, 1980, in

Valletta Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an Local councils of Malta, administrative unit and capital city, capital of Malta. Located on the Malta (island), main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, i ...

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

. Once again, the defending champions Hungary proved to be a real match for the Soviet favourites. The Hungarians led the table until the last round, but in the end the two teams tied for first place. The Soviet Union had a slightly better tie break score and took back the gold medals after six years. Yugoslavia completed the medal ranks. The Soviet team was captained by the reigning world champion Karpov (who fell ill during the tournament and didn't perform to his usual standard) and featured a former champion (Tal) as well as a future one: 17-year-old Olympic debutant Kasparov, who in his first appearance took a bronze medal on the 2nd reserve board.

Open event

A total of 81 nations played a 14-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 ...

. To make for an even number of teams, the Maltese hosts also fielded a "B" team. In the event of a draw, the tie-break was decided first by using the

Buchholz system The Buchholz system (also spelled Buchholtz) is a ranking or scoring system in chess developed by Bruno Buchholz (died ca. 1958) in 1932, for Swiss system tournaments . It was originally developed as an auxiliary scoring method, but more recently ...

, then by match points. :

Individual medals

* Board 1: William Hook 11½/14 = 82.1% * Board 2: Yrjö Rantanen 9½/13 = 73.1% * Board 3: José Félix Villarreal 9/11 = 81.8% * Board 4:

István Csom István Csom (2 June 1940 – 28 July 2021) was a Hungarian chess player who held the FIDE titles of Grandmaster and International Arbiter. FIDE awarded him the International Master title in 1967 and the Grandmaster title in 1973. He was Hunga ...

7/9 = 77.8% * 1st reserve: Yury Balashov (7½/10) and Bjørn Tiller (6/8) = 75.0% * 2nd reserve:

Predrag Nikolić Predrag Nikolić (born 11 September 1960 in Bosanski Šamac) is a Bosnian chess grandmaster. Biography He first competed for the Yugoslav Championship in 1979, taking a share of second place. The following year and again in 1984, he went ...

6½/8 = 81.3%

Best game

The 'Best Game' prize went t
Jonathan Mestel (England) - Nils Gustaf Renman (Sweden)
from round 13.

Women's event

42 teams took part in the women's event which for the first time was played as a 14-round

. In the event of a draw, the tie-break was decided first by using the

, then by match points. Like the open event, the women's tournament proved to be a tight affair between the Soviet Union and Hungary, with the Soviet team, captained by world champion Chiburdanidze, winning by half a point. Poland took the bronze. :

Individual medals

* Board 1:

Maia Chiburdanidze Maia Chiburdanidze ( ka, მაია ჩიბურდანიძე; born 17 January 1961) is a Georgian chess Grandmaster. She is the sixth Women's World Chess Champion, a title she held from 1978 to 1991, and was the youngest one until 2 ...

11½ / 13 = 88.5% * Board 2:

Nona Gaprindashvili Nona Gaprindashvili ( ka, ნონა გაფრინდაშვილი; born 3 May 1941) is a former Soviet Union, Soviet and Georgia (country), Georgian chess player, and the first woman ever to be awarded the FIDE title Grandmaster (ch ...

9½ / 12 = 79.2% * Board 3: Daniela Nuţu 7½ / 10 = 75.0% * Reserve:

Nana Ioseliani Nana Ioseliani ( ka, ნანა იოსელიანი; born 12 February 1962) is a Georgian chess player. She was awarded by FIDE the Woman Grandmaster title in 1980 and the International Master title in 1993. Already in 1978 she was su ...

7½ / 9 = 83.3%

References

24th Chess Olympiad: La Valletta 1980
OlimpBase {{Valletta 24 Women's Chess Olympiads Olympiad 24 Olympiad 24 Chess Olympiad 24 Chess Olympiad 24 20th century in Valletta