The 28th

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 ...

( el, Η 28η Σκακιστική Ολυμπιάδα, ''I 28i Skakistikí Olympiáda''), 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 12 and November 30, 1988, in

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. After the successful 26th Olympiad in Thessaloniki in 1984, FIDE had agreed to hold every other Olympiad (the ones in Olympic years) in the home country of the Olympic movement - provided the Greek Chess Federation and government could provide the necessary funding. This was only the case once, in 1986; after that the Olympiad went back to a new host city every two years. Israel was back, having been effectively banned from the previous Olympiad in Dubai, as were the countries that had stayed away in sympathy: The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. Also reappearing in the Olympic arena—after a 16-year absence—was East Germany, who celebrated their return by beating their West German rivals 3–1. The Soviet Union dominated as usual. With world champions Kasparov (reigning) and Karpov (former) on the top boards, they won by no less than six points. A strong English team took their third consecutive silver medals, while the returning Dutch team took the bronze.

Open event

There were 107 teams from 106 different nations playing in 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 ...

. Chile had also been signed up, but never arrived. 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

Performance rating The PR (Performance Rating, P-rating) system was a figure of merit developed by AMD, Cyrix, IBM Microelectronics and SGS-Thomson in the mid-1990s (Cyrix announced it in February 1996) as a method of comparing their x86 processors to those of ri ...

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born 13 April 1963) is a Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist and commentator. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by ...

2877 * Board 1:

8½ / 10 = 85.0% * Board 2:

Anatoly Karpov Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov ( rus, links=no, Анато́лий Евге́ньевич Ка́рпов, p=ɐnɐˈtolʲɪj jɪvˈɡʲenʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈkarpəf; born May 23, 1951) is a Russian and former Soviet chess grandmaster, former World Ches ...

8 / 10 = 80.0% * Board 3:

Carlos Antonio Reyes Nájera Carlos Antonio Reyes Nájera (born 27 October 1961) is a Guatemalan chess FIDE Master (FM), three-time Guatemalan Chess Championship winner (1989, 1990, 1992) and Chess Olympiad individual gold medalist ( 1988). Biography Carlos Antonio Reyes ...

7½ / 10 = 75.0% * Board 4:

Suchart Chaivichit Suchart Chaivichit ( th, สุชาติ ชัยวิชิต; born 8 July 1956) is a makruk and chess player from Thailand. He is a five-time makruk champion of Thailand (1983, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991). In chess he is a FIDE Master and th ...

8 / 9 = 88.9% * 1st reserve: Ennio Arlandi and Eduardo Vásquez 5½ / 7 = 78.6% * 2nd reserve: Tahmidur Rahman and Jorge Gómez Baillo 6 / 7 = 85.7%

Best combination

The 'Best combination' prize went t
Carsten Høi (Denmark) - Boris Gulko (USA)
from round 4.

Women's event

56 teams from 55 different nations took part. In the event of a draw, the tie-break was decided first by using the

, then by match points. The Soviet Union had won 10 of the previous 11 Olympiads, but this time they were bested by a Hungarian teenage team featuring 19-year-old Mádl as well as all three Polgár sisters: Zsuzsa (also 19), Zsófia (14), and Judit (12). The biggest star of the women's event was 12-year-old prodigy Judit, who scored 12½ points in 13 games and won her board as well as the overall performance rating. : :

Individual medals

Judit Polgár Judit Polgár (born 23 July 1976) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster, generally considered the strongest female chess player of all time. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, at the time the you ...

2694 * Board 1:

Pia Cramling Pia Ann Rosa-Della Cramling (born 23 April 1963) is a Sweden, Swedish chess player. In 1992, she became the fifth woman to earn the FIDE title of Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster (GM). Since the early 1980s, she has been one of the strongest fem ...

12½ / 14 = 89.3% * Board 2:

12½ / 13 = 96.2% * Board 3:

Peng Zhaoqin Peng Zhaoqin (; born 8 May 1968 in Guangzhou, Guangdong) is a Chinese-born Dutch chess player. In October 2004, she was the eleventh woman ever to be awarded the FIDE title of Grandmaster. She won three times the Chinese women's chess champi ...

(10½/14) and Maria Horvath (9/12) = 75.0% * Reserve: Yesmin Begum 6½ / 8 = 81.3%

References

28th Chess Olympiad: Thessaloniki 1988
OlimpBase {{Chess Olympiads 28 Women's Chess Olympiads Olympiad 28 Chess Olympiad 28 Olympiad 28 Chess Olympiad 28