Opening ceremony The opening ceremony was held on 1 September in the
National Gymnastics Arena. The central area of the stage was slightly elevated and turned into a
chessboard by lights from above. The ceremony began with a performance presenting the theme "the sea: the source of life", which was followed by the anthems of Azerbaijan and FIDE. Thereafter, the Head of the organising committee and the First Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Yaqub Eyyubov gave a speech. Eyyubov spoke in
Azeri and noted that the Chess Olympiad is the third-largest competition in the world. He mentioned the great contribution of the president
Ilham Aliyev and his father
Heydar Aliyev to the sport successes of the host country, and then pointed out the great efforts that were done during the preparations for the Chess Olympiad. Finally, Eyyubov confidently stated that everything was ready for a well-organised and enjoyable Olympiad that he promised to be one of the most memorable in chess history. The next to speak was FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhnov, who welcomed all participants from the record-number of countries and extolled the great preparatory work of the organising committee. He also expressed his belief in the success of the Chess Olympiad on the basis of Azerbaijan's experience in hosting important chess events combined with its remarkable infrastructure and beauty. After their speeches, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev declared the 42nd Chess Olympiad open. The ceremony continued with a welcoming video that featured famous chess players from around the world addressing the participants. Then, there was a performance focusing of the connection between people and chess players, which included a waltz choreography as the centrepiece of the show. It was followed by a graphical show at the elevated chessboard that combined folk and modern dance, and was supported by
video art projected on the area around and behind the stage. The show featured traditional carpet patterns and designs, embracing a dance group replaying the game of
chaturanga. The next part of the ceremony was the parade of nations with the presentation of flags. Each appearance of a new flag on the screen was accompanied by a percussionist who showed up on the stage playing on
nagara with the same flag as his drumhead. The percussionists left the stage under the sound of an adaption of the song "
We Are the World". Ten FIDE Member Federations did not have teams at the Olympiad. They include the triple champions (2006, 2008 and 2012) in the open event
Armenia as well as
Bhutan,
Burundi,
Cambodia,
Comoros,
Gabon,
Laos,
Nauru,
Solomon Islands and
East Timor. The
Netherlands Antilles, albeit a
non-existing entity since 2010, were allowed to field teams under this name, because the Curaçao Chess Federation remains officially registered as representing the dissolved country in the FIDE Directory.
Eritrea,
Kosovo, and
South Sudan debuted at the Chess Olympiads. Countries that had teams in the women's event for the first time were:
Djibouti,
Guam,
Guyana,
Maldives,
Sierra Leone and
Tanzania. ;Notes • Countries in
italics denote those fielding teams in the open event only. • Countries whose players did not arrive have been stricken.
Competition format and calendar The tournament was played in a
Swiss system format. The
time control for all games was 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, after which an additional 30 minutes were granted and increment of 30 seconds per move was applied. Players were permitted to
offer a draw at any time. A total of 11 rounds were played, with all teams playing in every round. In each round, four players from each team faced four players from another team; teams were permitted one reserve player who could be substituted between rounds. The four games were played simultaneously on four boards,
scoring 1 game point for a win and ½ game point for a draw. The scores from each game were summed together to determine which team won the round. Winning a round was worth 2 match points, regardless of the game point margin, while drawing a round was worth 1 match point. Teams were ranked in a table based on match points. Tie-breakers for the table were i) the
Sonneborn-Berger system; ii) total game points scored; iii) the sum of the match points of the opponents, excluding the lowest one. :
All dates are AZST (UTC+5) Open event The open section of the tournament was contested by a record number of 180 teams representing 175 nations. The tournament featured eight out of the top ten players from the
FIDE rating list published in August 2016; only former World Champion
Viswanathan Anand and
Levon Aronian were missing the Olympiad. Among the players who were playing in the open section were the World Champion and highest rated player in the world
Magnus Carlsen, the challenger in the
World Chess Championship 2016 Sergey Karjakin as well as the former World Champions
Vladimir Kramnik and
Veselin Topalov. Grandmaster
Eugenio Torre was in the line-up of the
Philippines for the record twenty-third time, having played on each Chess Olympiad since 1970 except in
Dresden in 2008. On the other hand,
Ukraine were weaker for missing
Vassily Ivanchuk, who did not play for the first time after 14 consecutive Olympiads (1988–2014) and 13 appearances on board one (1990–2014). The former World Champion Challenger and leader of the
Israeli team in 8 consecutive Olympiads (2000–2014)
Boris Gelfand was also missing the Olympiad following a conflict with the Israeli Chess Federation management. The strongest team of the tournament was
Russia, with an average rating of 2760. Captained by the president of the
Russian Chess Federation and FIDE Vice President
Andrey Filatov, the team consisted of the World Champion Challenger Sergey Karjakin, Vladimir Kramnik,
Alexander Grischuk,
Evgeny Tomashevsky and
Ian Nepomniachtchi. Eight-time
Russian Champion and the fourth highest ranked Russian player
Peter Svidler was not included in the team. The
United States were the second strongest team with three top ten players,
Fabiano Caruana,
Hikaru Nakamura and
Wesley So, along with
Samuel Shankland and
Ray Robson. So and Shankland had proven prior to the Olympiad that they were in good form after winning the
Sinquefield Cup 2016 and the
Biel Chess Festival 2016, respectively. The defending champions
China was the third-ranking team, and the only team besides Russia whose all players have ratings higher than 2700. They participated with the same line-up that won the gold medal except for
Ni Hua who was replaced by
Li Chao. The first team of the three that represented the host country
Azerbaijan was the fourth strongest and completed the group with an average rating exceeding 2700 points. The only change in their line-up from the previous Chess Olympiad was
Arkadij Naiditsch, a board one player for Germany in four previous Olympiads, who replaced
Gadir Guseinov.
Open summary of Ukraine was the best individual player in the Open event. The United States won the gold medal in the Open event for the first time since
1976, and for the sixth time overall. They scored nine wins and two draws for a total of 20 match points, and thereby finished as one of only two teams that remained unbeaten in the open event (the other being
Greece). Ukraine scored 20 match points (ten wins and one loss) as well, but lost the tie-breaker, to secure the silver medal. Russia, favourites before the tournament, finished in third place with 18 match points, winning the bronze medals. China, the defending champions, scored 15 match points, and occupied the 13th place in the final standings.
Norway, led by the world champion Magnus Carlsen, ended the tournament in fifth place, which is their best result ever at the Chess Olympiads; they had only finished in the top 20 on one previous occasion. Teams that had a disappointing result other than China include
Azerbaijan (the fourth seed) in 12th place,
Spain in 31st place, the
Netherlands in 36th place, and
Germany in 37th place. Andrei Volokitin of Ukraine, playing as a reserve player, won the individual gold medal overall, scoring 8 out of 9 (eight wins and a draw) with a rating performance of 2992. The other gold medalists include: Baadur Jobava of Georgia on board one with a total score of 8 out of 10 and a rating performance of 2926, Vladimir Kramnik of Russia on board two who scored 6 out of 8 with a rating performance of 2903, Wesley So of the United States on board three with 8 out of 10 and a rating performance of 2896, and
Laurent Fressinet of France who scored 7 out of 8 with a rating performance of 2809. ;Notes • Average ratings calculated by chess-results.com based in September 2016 ratings. All board prizes were given out according to
performance ratings for players who have played at least eight games at the tournament. Andrei Volokitin as a reserve player had the best performance of all players in the tournament: • Board 1:
Baadur Jobava 2926 • Board 2:
Vladimir Kramnik 2903 • Board 3:
Wesley So 2896 • Board 4:
Laurent Fressinet 2809 •
Reserve: Andrei Volokitin 2992 Women's event The Women's event was contested a record number of 142 teams representing 138 nations. Eight of the top ten players from the FIDE women's rating list published in August 2016 were playing in the women's event with only India's
Humpy Koneru and Russia's
Kateryna Lagno not playing. The current Women's World Champion and highest rated woman Hou Yifan was playing on board one for China, while former Women's World Champions
Antoaneta Stefanova,
Alexandra Kosteniuk,
Anna Ushenina and
Mariya Muzychuk were also part of their national teams. The top seed in the women's event were China with an average rating of 2528. They were led by the Women's World Champion Hou Yifan on board one, along with
Zhao Xue,
Ju Wenjun,
Tan Zhongyi and
Guo Qi. The reigning champions Russia have the second highest average rating. They were led by Alexandra Kosteniuk and were playing with the same players as in the previous Olympiad, where the only difference was the induction of
Aleksandra Goryachkina instead of the absent Kateryna Lagno. Ukraine and
Georgia were the other two teams with average rating higher than 2400. The Ukrainian team consisted of most Grandmasters (four) and Women's World Champions (two), and included both
Anna and Mariya Muzychuk playing on the top two boards, Anna Ushenina,
Natalia Zhukova and
Inna Gaponenko. Georgia were led by the best individual player in the women's event of the Chess Olympiad in
Tromsø in 2014
Nana Dzagnidze, and also had
Lela Javakhishvili,
Nino Batsiashvili,
Bela Khotenashvili and
Salome Melia on the team. • Board 1:
Anna Muzychuk 2629 •
Board 2: Valentina Gunina 2643 • Board 3:
Gulnar Mammadova 2559 • Board 4:
Tan Zhongyi 2565 • Reserve:
Guo Qi 2394
Gaprindashvili Trophy The
Nona Gaprindashvili Trophy, created by FIDE in 1997 and named after the former women's World Champion (1961–78), was awarded to Ukraine, having scored the highest total number of match points in the open and women's events combined. == FIDE Congress ==