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.

History The first Olympiad was unofficial. For the 1924 Olympics, an attempt was made to include chess in the Olympic Games but this failed because of problems with distinguishing between amateur and professional players. While the 1924 Summer Olympics was taking place in Paris, the 1st unofficial Chess Olympiad also took place in Paris. FIDE was formed on Sunday, July 20, 1924, the closing day of the 1st unofficial Chess Olympiad.FIDE History by Bill Wall. Retrieved 2 May 2008. A second unofficial chess Olympiad was held in Budapest in 1926, during the third FIDE Congress.Stanisław Gawlikowski Olimpiady szachowe 1924 - 1974 Wyd. Sport i Turystyka, Warszawa 1978

FIDE organised the first official Olympiad in 1927 which took place in London. Eight Olympiads were held irregular intervals from 1927 to 1939, when they were stopped due to World War II, then there were no further Olympiads until 1950.

Since 1950 they have been held regularly every two years. The only exception is that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no 2020 Olympiad, but FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 and 2021, with a rapid time control that affected players' online ratings.

The first Women's Chess Olympiad was held in 1957. In 1972, and since 1976, the open and women's Olympiads have been held at the same time and venue.

+Growth of Chess Olympiads

Competition Each FIDE-recognized chess association can enter a team into the Olympiad. Each team is made of up to five players, four regular players and one reserve (prior to the tournament in Dresden 2008 there were two reservesFIDE submits regulation changes for Chess Olympiad Fide.com).

Initially each team played all other teams but as the event grew over the years this became impossible. At first team seeding took place before the competition, with teams playing in preliminary groups and then finals. Later certain drawbacks were recognized with seeding and in 1976 a Swiss tournament system was adopted. Starting from 2008, the first criterion for determining ranking has been match points instead of board points. Teams score 2 points for a match win, 1 point for a drawn match and 0 points for a match loss.

There is a separate women's competition. Since 1976 it has been held at the same time and venue as the open event, with the two competitions comprising the Chess Olympiad. Before 2008 the team sizes were smaller than in the Open: teams of two in 1957; teams of two with one reserve from 1963 to 1974; and teams of three with one reserve from 1976 to 2006.

The trophy for the winning team in the open section is the Hamilton-Russell Cup, which was offered by the English magnate Frederick Hamilton-Russell as a prize for the 1st Olympiad (London 1927). The cup is kept by the winning team until the next event, when it is consigned to the next winner. The trophy for the winning women's team is known as the Vera Menchik Cup in honor of the first Women's World Chess Champion. Since FIDE has also awarded the #Gaprindashvili Cup, for the country with the best overall performance across both divisions.

Drug testing As a sporting federation recognized by the IOC, and particularly as a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) conventions, FIDE adheres to their rules, including a requirement for doping tests, Complete FIDE Anti-Doping Documents FIDE official website. Retrieved 2 May 2008. which they are obligated to take at the events such as the Olympiad. The tests were first introduced in 2002 under significant controversy,Open letter from 50 players on drug testing (Web Archive) with the widespread belief that it was impossible to dope in chess. Research carried out by the Dutch chess federation failed to find a single performance-enhancing substance for chess. According to Dr Helmut Pfleger, who has been conducting experiments in the field for around twenty years, "Both mentally stimulating and mentally calming medication have too many negative side effects". Players such as Artur Yusupov, Jan Timman and Robert Hübner either refused to play for their national team or to participate in events such as the Chess Olympiad where drug tests were administered. All 802 tests administered at the 2002 Olympiad came back negative. However, in the 36th Chess Olympiad in 2004, two players refused to provide urine samples and had their scores cancelled. Four years later, Vasyl Ivanchuk was not penalized for skipping a drug test at the 38th Chess Olympiad in 2008, with a procedural error being indicated instead.

In 2010, a FIDE official commented that due to the work of the FIDE Medical Commission, the tests were now considered routine.Minutes of 2010 FIDE General Assembly (page 24) In November 2015, FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov announced they are working with WADA to define and identify doping in chess.

Results Open event