The 31st

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 ...

(russian: 31-я Шахматная олимпиада, ''31-ya Shakhmatnaya olimpiada''), 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 Male (symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or ovum, in the process of fertilization. A male organism cannot reproduce sexually without access to ...

and

female Female (Venus symbol, symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ovum, ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the Sperm, male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gamet ...

players. and a women's tournament, took place between November 30 and December 17, 1994, in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. Both tournament sections were officiated by

international arbiter {{No footnotes, date=April 2022 In chess tournaments, an arbiter is an official who oversees matches and ensures that the rules of chess are followed. International Arbiter ''International Arbiter'' is a title awarded by FIDE to individuals deemed ...

Yuri Averbakh Yuri Lvovich Averbakh (russian: Ю́рий Льво́вич Аверба́х; 8 February 1922 – 7 May 2022) was a Russian chess grandmaster and author. He was chairman of the USSR Chess Federation from 1973 to 1978. He was the first centenari ...

of Russia. The record number of nations once again counted some old faces playing under new flags. Yugoslavia was back, but now represented by the federation of Serbia-Montenegro. Another former Yugoslav republic, Macedonia, also made its debut, as did the Czech Republic and Slovakia who competed individually for the first time. Finally, the

International Braille Chess Association The International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) is organization for blind and visually impaired chess players. The IBCA is a FIDE-affiliated chess organization as well as a part of the International Blind Sports Federation. The International ...

entered two truly international teams. The Russian team retained their title, captained by PCA world champion Kasparov. Due to a dispute with the national federation,

champion

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 ...

was not present. A strong performance from Bosnia-Herzegovina, led by Nikolić, earned them the silver, while the Russian "B" team of juniors, somewhat surprisingly, took the bronze—the first and only time that the same nation has occupied more than one medal rank.

Open event

The open division was contested by 124 teams representing 122 nations plus Russia "B" and the IBCA. The

time control A time control is a mechanism in the tournament play of almost all two-player board games so that each round of the match can finish in a timely way and the tournament can proceed. Time controls are typically enforced by means of a game clock, ...

for each game permitted each player 2 hours to make the first 40 of his or her moves, then an additional 1-hour to make the next 20 moves. In the event of a draw, the tie-break was decided by 1. 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 ...

; and 2. 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 ...

Veselin Topalov Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov (pronounced ; bg, Весели́н Александров Топа́лов; born 15 March 1975) is a Bulgarian chess International Grandmaster, grandmaster and former FIDE World Chess Championship, World Chess Champ ...

2781 * Board 1: Daniel Hugo Cámpora 7½ / 9 = 83.3% * Board 2:

Carlos Dávila Carlos Gregorio Dávila Espinoza (September 15, 1887 – October 19, 1955), was a Chilean political figure, journalist, chairman of the Government Junta of Chile in 1932, and secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS) from 1 ...

11 / 14 = 78.6% * Board 3: Ennio Arlandi 7½ / 9 = 83.3% * Board 4:

Yasser Seirawan Yasser Seirawan ( ar, ياسر سيروان; born March 24, 1960) is a Syrian-born American chess grandmaster and four-time United States champion. He won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1979. Seirawan is also a published chess author an ...

8½ / 10 = 85.0% * 1st reserve: Leighton Williams 6 / 7 = 85.7% * 2nd reserve: Brian Kelly 5½ / 7 = 78.6%

Women's event

The women's division was contested by 81 teams representing 79 nations plus Russia "B" and the IBCA. The

for each game permitted each player 2 hours to make the first 40 of his or her moves, then an additional 1-hour to make the next 20 moves. In the event of a draw, the tie-break was decided by 1. The

; and 2. Match points. The Georgian team, led by former world champion Chiburdanidze, retained their title. Hungary returned to the medal ranks due to the return of Zsuzsa and Zsófia Polgár. Meanwhile, little sister Judit played first board for the Hungarian team in the open event - the first woman to do so. China, captained by reigning world champion Xie Jun, took the bronze. : :

Individual medals

Zsófia Polgár Sofia Polgar ( hu, Polgár Zsófia, ); born November 2, 1974) is a Hungarian and Israeli chess player, teacher, and artist. She holds the FIDE titles of International Master and Woman Grandmaster. A former chess prodigy, she is the middle sister ...

2625 * Board 1:

Lubov Zsiltzova-Lisenko Lubov Zsiltzova-Lisenko ( uk, Любов Жильцова-Лысенко; born 20 October 1956) is a Ukrainian chess player who holds the title of FIDE title of Woman International Master (WIM, 1996). She won the Ukrainian Women's Chess Champion ...

( IBCA) 10½ / 13 = 80.8% * Board 2:

12½ / 14 = 89.3% * Board 3:

Amelia Hernández Amelia Ignacia Hernández Bonilla (born June 7, 1971), is a Venezuelan chess Women FIDE Master (WFM) (1988), five-times Venezuelan Women's Chess Championships winner (1985, 1986, 1992, 1994, 2018), Women's Chess Olympiad individual gold medalis ...

8½ / 9 = 94.4% * Reserve:

Elena Sedina Elena Sedina (russian: Елена Седина; ua, Оле́на Се́діна, ''Olena Sedina''; born 1 June 1968 in Kyiv) is a Ukrainian-Italian chess player who holds the FIDE titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM) ...

10½ / 12 = 87.5%

References

31st Chess Olympiad: Moscow 1994
OlimpBase {{Chess Olympiads Chess Olympiads Women's Chess Olympiads Olympiad 1994 Chess Olympiad 1994 1994 in chess 1994 in Russian sport 1994 in Moscow November 1994 sports events in Russia December 1994 sports events in Russia