Women's Chess Olympiad

The Women's Chess Olympiad is an event held by FIDE (the International Chess Federation) since 1957 (every two years since 1972), where national women's teams compete at chess for gold, silver and bronze medals. Since 1976 the Women's Chess Olympiad has been incorporated within Chess Olympiad events, with simultaneous women's and open tournaments.

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 (1927–1944). The Soviet Union has won it the most often: 11 times. Before the break-up of the Soviet Union, it has also been won by Hungary led by three Polgár sisters (twice) and Israeli team fully composed of Soviet-born players (once in 1976 when it was boycotted by the Eastern Bloc). In the post-Soviet era, China have won the event six times, Georgia – four times, Russia – three times, Ukraine – two times and India – once.

Results

From 1957 to 1974 the Women's Olympiad was a separate event (with except of the 1972 event). Since 1976 it has been held in the same place and at the same time as the open event.

Year	Event	Host	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1957	1st Women's Chess Olympiad	Emmen, Netherlands	Soviet Union 10½ Olga Rubtsova Kira Zvorykina	Romania 10½ Maria Pogorevici Margareta Teodorescu	East Germany 10 Edith Keller-Herrmann Ursula Altrichter
1963	2nd Women's Chess Olympiad	Split, Yugoslavia	Soviet Union 25 Nona Gaprindashvili Tatiana Zatulovskaya Kira Zvorykina	Yugoslavia 24½ Milunka Lazarević Verica Nedeljković Katarina Jovanović-Blagojević	East Germany 21 Edith Keller-Herrmann Waltraud Nowarra Eveline Kraatz
1966	3rd Women's Chess Olympiad	Oberhausen, West Germany	Soviet Union 22 Nona Gaprindashvili Valentina Kozlovskaya Tatiana Zatulovskaya	Romania 20½ Alexandra Nicolau Elisabeta Polihroniade Margareta Perevoznic	East Germany 17 Edith Keller-Herrmann Waltraud Nowarra Gabriele Just
1969	4th Women's Chess Olympiad	Lublin, Poland	Soviet Union 26 Nona Gaprindashvili Alla Kushnir Nana Alexandria	Hungary 20½ Mária Ivánka Zsuzsa Verőci Károlyné Honfi	Czechoslovakia 19 Štěpánka Vokřálová Květa Eretová Jana Malypetrová
1972	20th Chess Olympiad	Skopje, Yugoslavia	Soviet Union 11½ Nona Gaprindashvili Alla Kushnir Irina Levitina	Romania 8 Elisabeta Polihroniade Gertrude Baumstark Alexandra Nicolau	Hungary 8 Mária Ivánka Zsuzsa Verőci Gyuláné Krizsán-Bilek
1974	6th Women's Chess Olympiad	Medellín, Colombia	Soviet Union 13½ Nona Gaprindashvili Nana Alexandria Irina Levitina	Romania 13½ Elisabeta Polihroniade Gertrude Baumstark Margareta Teodorescu	Bulgaria 13 Tatjana Lematschko Antonina Georgieva Venka Asenova
1976	22nd Chess Olympiad *	Haifa, Israel	Israel 17 Alla Kushnir Ljuba Kristol Olga Podrazhanskaya Lea Nudelman	England 11½ Jana Hartston Sheila Jackson Elaine Pritchard Susan Caldwell	Spain 11½ Pepita Ferrer Lucas Nieves García Vicente María del Pino García Padrón Teresa Canela Giménez
1978	23rd Chess Olympiad	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Soviet Union 16 Maia Chiburdanidze Nona Gaprindashvili Nana Alexandria Elena Akhmilovskaya	Hungary 11 Zsuzsa Verőci-Petronić Mária Ivánka Zsuzsa Makai Rita Kas	West Germany 11 Anni Laakmann Gisela Fischdick Barbara Hund Hannelore Weichert
1980	24th Chess Olympiad	Valletta, Malta	Soviet Union 32½ Maia Chiburdanidze Nona Gaprindashvili Nana Alexandria Nana Ioseliani	Hungary 32 Zsuzsa Verőci-Petronić Mária Ivánka Mária Porubszky-Angyalosine Tünde Csonkics	Poland 26½ Hanna Ereńska-Radzewska Grażyna Szmacińska Małgorzata Wiese Agnieszka Brustman
1982	25th Chess Olympiad	Lucerne, Switzerland	Soviet Union 33 Maia Chiburdanidze Nana Alexandria Nona Gaprindashvili Nana Ioseliani	Romania 30 Margareta Mureșan Marina Pogorevici Daniela Nuţu-Terescenko Elisabeta Polihroniade	Hungary 26 Zsuzsa Verőci-Petronić Mária Ivánka Mária Porubszky-Angyalosine Tünde Csonkics
1984	26th Chess Olympiad	Thessaloniki, Greece	Soviet Union 32 Maia Chiburdanidze Irina Levitina Nona Gaprindashvili Lidia Semenova	Bulgaria 27½ Margarita Voyska Rumiana Gocheva Pavlina Chilingirova Stefka Savova	Romania 27 Margareta Mureșan Elisabeta Polihroniade Daniela Nuţu Gabriela Olărașu
1986	27th Chess Olympiad	Dubai, United Arab Emirates	Soviet Union 33½ Maia Chiburdanidze Elena Akhmilovskaya Nona Gaprindashvili Nana Alexandria	Hungary 29 Zsuzsa Verőci-Petronić Ildikó Mádl Mária Ivánka Mária Grosch	Romania 28 Margareta Mureșan Daniela Nuţu Elisabeta Polihroniade Gabriela Olărașu
1988	28th Chess Olympiad	Thessaloniki, Greece	Hungary 33 Zsuzsa Polgár Judit Polgár Ildikó Mádl Zsófia Polgár	Soviet Union 32½ Maia Chiburdanidze Elena Akhmilovskaya Irina Levitina Marta Litinskaya	Yugoslavia 28 Alisa Marić Gordana Marković Suzana Maksimović Vesna Bašagić
1990	29th Chess Olympiad	Novi Sad, Yugoslavia	Hungary 35 Zsuzsa Polgár Judit Polgár Zsófia Polgár Ildikó Mádl	Soviet Union 35 Maia Chiburdanidze Nona Gaprindashvili Alisa Galliamova Ketevan Arakhamia	China 29 Xie Jun Peng Zhaoqin Qin Kanying Wang Lei
1992	30th Chess Olympiad	Manila, Philippines	Georgia 30½ Maia Chiburdanidze Nona Gaprindashvili Nana Ioseliani Nino Gurieli	Ukraine 29 Alisa Galliamova-Ivanchuk Marta Litinskaya Irina Chelushkina Lidia Semenova	China 28½ Xie Jun Peng Zhaoqin Wang Pin Qin Kanying
1994	31st Chess Olympiad	Moscow, Russia	Georgia 32 Maia Chiburdanidze Nana Ioseliani Ketevan Arakhamia Nino Gurieli	Hungary 31 Zsuzsa Polgár Zsófia Polgár Ildikó Mádl Tünde Csonkics	China 27 Xie Jun Peng Zhaoqin Qin Kanying Zhu Chen
1996	32nd Chess Olympiad	Yerevan, Armenia	Georgia 30 Maia Chiburdanidze Nana Ioseliani Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant Nino Gurieli	China 28½ Xie Jun Zhu Chen Wang Lei Wang Pin	Russia 28½ Alisa Galliamova Svetlana Matveeva Svetlana Prudnikova Ludmila Zaitseva
1998	33rd Chess Olympiad	Elista, Russia	China 29 Xie Jun Zhu Chen Wang Pin Wang Lei	Russia 27 Svetlana Matveeva Ekaterina Kovalevskaya Tatiana Shumiakina Tatiana Stepovaya-Dianchenko	Georgia 27 Maia Chiburdanidze Nana Ioseliani Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant Nino Khurtsidze
2000	34th Chess Olympiad	Istanbul, Turkey	China 32 Xie Jun Zhu Chen Xu Yuhua Wang Lei	Georgia 31 Maia Chiburdanidze Nana Ioseliani Nino Khurtsidze Nino Gurieli	Russia 28½ Alisa Galliamova Ekaterina Kovalevskaya Svetlana Matveeva Tatiana Stepovaya-Dianchenko
2002	35th Chess Olympiad	Bled, Slovenia	China 29½ Zhu Chen Xu Yuhua Wang Pin Zhao Xue	Russia 29 Ekaterina Kovalevskaya Svetlana Matveeva Alexandra Kosteniuk Tatiana Kosintseva	Poland 28 Iweta Radziewicz Joanna Dworakowska Monika Soćko Beata Kądziołka
2004	36th Chess Olympiad	Calvià, Spain	China 31 Xie Jun Xu Yuhua Zhao Xue Huang Qian	United States 28 Susan Polgar Irina Krush Anna Zatonskih Jennifer Shahade	Russia 27½ Alexandra Kosteniuk Tatiana Kosintseva Ekaterina Kovalevskaya Nadezhda Kosintseva
2006	37th Chess Olympiad	Turin, Italy	Ukraine 29½ Natalia Zhukova Kateryna Lahno Inna Gaponenko Anna Ushenina	Russia 28 Alexandra Kosteniuk Tatiana Kosintseva Nadezhda Kosintseva Ekaterina Kovalevskaya	China 27½ Zhao Xue Wang Yu Shen Yang Hou Yifan
2008	38th Chess Olympiad	Dresden, Germany	Georgia 18 Maia Chiburdanidze Nana Dzagnidze Lela Javakhishvili Maia Lomineishvili Sopiko Khukhashvili	Ukraine 18 Kateryna Lahno Natalia Zhukova Anna Ushenina Inna Gaponenko Natalia Zdebskaya	United States 17 Irina Krush Anna Zatonskih Rusudan Goletiani Katerina Rohonyan Tatev Abrahamyan
2010	39th Chess Olympiad	Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia	Russia 22 Tatiana Kosintseva Nadezhda Kosintseva Alexandra Kosteniuk Alisa Galliamova Valentina Gunina	China 18 Hou Yifan Ju Wenjun Zhao Xue Huang Qian Wang Yu	Georgia 16 Nana Dzagnidze Lela Javakhishvili Salome Melia Sopiko Khukhashvili Bela Khotenashvili
2012	40th Chess Olympiad	Istanbul, Turkey	Russia 19 Tatiana Kosintseva Valentina Gunina Nadezhda Kosintseva Alexandra Kosteniuk Natalia Pogonina	China 19 Hou Yifan Zhao Xue Ju Wenjun Huang Qian Ding Yixin	Ukraine 18 Kateryna Lahno Mariya Muzychuk Natalia Zhukova Anna Ushenina Inna Gaponenko
2014	41st Chess Olympiad	Tromsø, Norway	Russia 20 Kateryna Lagno Valentina Gunina Alexandra Kosteniuk Olga Girya Natalia Pogonina	China 18 Hou Yifan Ju Wenjun Zhao Xue Tan Zhongyi Guo Qi	Ukraine 18 Anna Muzychuk Mariya Muzychuk Anna Ushenina Natalia Zhukova Inna Gaponenko
2016	42nd Chess Olympiad	Baku, Azerbaijan	China 20 Hou Yifan Ju Wenjun Zhao Xue Tan Zhongyi Guo Qi	Poland 17 Monika Soćko Jolanta Zawadzka Karina Szczepkowska-Horowska Klaudia Kulon Mariola Woźniak	Ukraine 17 Anna Muzychuk Mariya Muzychuk Natalia Zhukova Anna Ushenina Inna Gaponenko
2018	43rd Chess Olympiad	Batumi, Georgia	China 18 Ju Wenjun Shen Yang Huang Qian Lei Tingjie Zhai Mo	Ukraine 18 Anna Muzychuk Mariya Muzychuk Anna Ushenina Natalia Zhukova Yuliia Osmak	Georgia 17 Nana Dzagnidze Lela Javakhishvili Nino Batsiashvili Bela Khotenashvili Meri Arabidze
2022	44th Chess Olympiad	Chennai, India	Ukraine 18 Mariya Muzychuk Anna Muzychuk Anna Ushenina Nataliya Buksa Yuliia Osmak	Georgia 18 Nana Dzagnidze Nino Batsiashvili Lela Javakhishvili Salome Melia Meri Arabidze	India 17 Koneru Humpy Harika Dronavalli Rameshbabu Vaishali Tania Sachdev Bhakti Kulkarni
2024	45th Chess Olympiad	Budapest, Hungary	India 19 Harika Dronavalli Rameshbabu Vaishali Divya Deshmukh Vantika Agrawal Tania Sachdev	Kazakhstan 18 Bibisara Assaubayeva Meruert Kamalidenova Xeniya Balabayeva Alua Nurman Amina Kairbekova	United States 17 Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova Carissa Yip Irina Krush Alice Lee Anna Zatonskih
2026	46th Chess Olympiad	Tashkent, Uzbekistan
2028	47th Chess Olympiad	Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

* In 1976 the Soviet Union and other Socialist states did not compete for political reasons.

Gaprindashvili Cup

This trophy was created by FIDE in 1997 and named after Nona Gaprindashvili, the former women's World Champion (1962–1978). The trophy is awarded to the team that has the best overall performance across the open and women's divisions.

Russia won this trophy six times, China – three times, India and Ukraine – two times each.

Year	First	Second	Third
1998	Russia	China	Georgia
2000	Russia	Ukraine	Georgia
2002	Russia	China	Hungary
2004	Russia	United States	Armenia
2006	China	Ukraine	Armenia
2008	Ukraine	Armenia	United States
2010	Russia	China	Ukraine
2012	Russia	China	Ukraine
2014	China	Russia	Ukraine
2016	Ukraine	United States	China
2018	China	Russia	Ukraine
2022	India	United States	India 2
2024	India	United States	Armenia

Medal tables

Women's event

The table contains the women's teams ranked by the medals won at the Chess Olympiad, not including the unofficial events, ranked by the number of first place medals, ties broken by second-place medals, etc.


Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union	11	2	0	13
2	China	6	4	4	14
3	Georgia	4	2	3	9
4	Russia	3	3	3	9
5	Hungary	2	5	2	9
6	Ukraine	2	3	3	8
7	India	1	0	1	2
8	Israel	1	0	0	1
9	Romania	0	5	2	7
10	Poland	0	1	2	3
10	United States	0	1	2	3
12	Bulgaria	0	1	1	2
12	Yugoslavia	0	1	1	2
14	England	0	1	0	1
14	Kazakhstan	0	1	0	1
16	East Germany	0	0	3	3
17	Czechoslovakia	0	0	1	1
	Spain	0	0	1	1
	West Germany	0	0	1	1
Totals (19 entries)		30	30	30	90

Open and Women's events

The table contains teams ranked by total number of medals won at the Chess Olympiad (not including the online or unofficial events) in the Open event (since 1927) and Women's event (since 1957), ranked by the number of first-place medals, ties broken by second-place medals, etc.


Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union	29	3	0	32
2	Russia	9	6	6	21
3	China	8	5	4	17
4	United States	6	8	10	24
5	Hungary	5	12	4	21
6	Ukraine	4	5	6	15
7	Georgia	4	2	3	9
8	Armenia	3	1	3	7
9	India	2	0	3	5
10	Yugoslavia	1	7	7	15
11	Poland	1	3	5	9
12	Germany	1	1	1	3
	Israel	1	1	1	3
	Uzbekistan	1	1	1	3
15	Romania	0	5	2	7
16	England	0	4	3	7
17	Argentina	0	3	2	5
18	Czechoslovakia	0	2	2	4
19	Bulgaria	0	1	2	3
20	Netherlands	0	1	1	2
20	Sweden	0	1	1	2
22	Bosnia and Herzegovina	0	1	0	1
	Denmark	0	1	0	1
	Kazakhstan	0	1	0	1
25	East Germany	0	0	3	3
25	West Germany	0	0	3	3
27	Estonia	0	0	1	1
27	Spain	0	0	1	1
Totals (28 entries)		75	75	75	225

Most successful players

Boldface denotes active chess players and highest medal count among all players (including these who not included in these tables) per type.

Multiple team champions

Rank	Player	Country	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Nona Gaprindashvili	Soviet Union Georgia	1963	1992	11	1	–	12
2	Maia Chiburdanidze	Soviet Union Georgia	1978	2008	9	3	1	13
3	Nana Alexandria	Soviet Union	1969	1986	6	–	–	6
4	Nana Ioseliani	Soviet Union Georgia	1980	2000	5	1	1	7
5	Zhao Xue	China	2002	2016	3	3	1	7
6	Alexandra Kosteniuk	Russia	2002	2014	3	2	1	6
7	Xie Jun	China	1990	2004	3	1	3	7
8	Zhu Chen	China	1994	2002	3	1	1	5
9	Nino Gurieli	Georgia	1992	2000	3	1	–	4
9	Irina Levitina	Soviet Union	1972	1988	3	1	–	4

Multiple team medalists

The table shows players who have won at least 6 team medals in total at the Chess Olympiads.

Rank	Player	Country	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Maia Chiburdanidze	Soviet Union Georgia	1978	2008	9	3	1	13
2	Nona Gaprindashvili	Soviet Union Georgia	1963	1992	11	1	–	12
3	Nana Ioseliani	Soviet Union Georgia	1980	2000	5	1	1	7
4	Zhao Xue	China	2002	2016	3	3	1	7
5	Xie Jun	China	1990	2004	3	1	3	7
6	Anna Ushenina	Ukraine	2006	2022	2	2	3	7
7	Nana Alexandria	Soviet Union	1969	1986	6	–	–	6
8	Alexandra Kosteniuk	Russia	2002	2014	3	2	1	6
9	Natalia Zhukova	Ukraine	2006	2018	1	2	3	6
10	Mária Ivánka	Hungary	1969	1986	–	4	2	6
	Elisabeta Polihroniade	Romania	1966	1986	–	4	2	6
	Zsuzsa Verőci-Petronić	Hungary	1969	1986	–	4	2	6

Best individual results in the women's section

The best individual results in order of overall percentage are:

Rank	Player	Country	Ol.	Gms.	+	=	–	%	Individual medals	Number of ind. medals	Team medals	Number of team medals
1	Nona Gaprindashvili	Soviet Union (11) Georgia (1)	12	128	94	26	8	83.6	8 – 3 – 0	11	11 – 1 – 0	12
2	Nadezhda Kosintseva	Russia	5	51	36	13	2	83.3	4 – 0 – 0	4	2 – 1 – 1	4
3	Pia Cramling	Sweden	10	118	79	35	4	81.8	3 – 2 – 2	7	0 – 0 – 0	0
4	Zsófia Polgár	Hungary	4	48	32	13	3	80.2	2 – 0 – 1	3	2 – 1 – 0	3
5	Wang Lei	China	4	32	21	8	3	78.1	1 – 0 – 0	1	2 – 1 – 1	4
6	Zsuzsa (Susan) Polgár	Hungary (3) United States (1)	4	56	31	25	0	77.7	1 – 2 – 1	4	2 – 2 – 0	4
7	Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant	Soviet Union (1) Georgia (4) Scotland (4)	9	95	62	23	10	77.4	2 – 0 – 1	3	2 – 1 – 1	4
8	Valentina Gunina	Russia	5	46	27	16	3	76.1	2 – 0 – 0	2	3 – 0 – 0	3
9	Nana Alexandria	Soviet Union	6	54	35	12	7	75.9	4 – 0 – 0	4	6 – 0 – 0	6
10	Alisa Galliamova (Galliamova-Ivanchuk)	Soviet Union (1) Ukraine (1) Russia (3)	5	57	39	8	10	75.4	0 – 2 – 0	2	1 – 2 – 2	5
11	Zhao Xue	China	8	81	49	24	8	75.3	3 – 0 – 0	3	3 – 3 – 1	7
12	Maia Chiburdanidze	Soviet Union (7) Georgia (8)	15	167	89	73	5	75.1	4 – 2 – 3	9	9 – 3 – 1	13
13	Iman Hasan Al-Rufaye	Iraq	5	48	31	10	7	75.0	1 – 2 – 0	3	0 – 0 – 0	0
14	Hou Yifan	China	6	61	34	23	4	74.6	1 – 3 – 2	6	1 – 3 – 1	5
15	Nino Batsiashvili	Georgia	6	55	33	16	6	74.5	1 – 1 – 0	2	0 – 1 – 1	2
16	Sarasadat Khademalsharieh	Iran (4) Spain (1)	5	49	28	17	4	74.5	0 – 1 – 0	1	0 – 0 – 0	0
17	Nana Ioseliani	Soviet Union (2) Georgia (6)	8	88	49	32	7	73.9	2 – 2 – 1	5	5 – 1 – 1	7
18	Zhu Chen	China	5	59	34	19	6	73.7	2 – 1 – 0	3	3 – 1 – 1	5
19	Zsuzsa Verőci-Petronić	Hungary	10	118	62	48	8	72.9	0 – 3 – 2	5	0 – 4 – 2	6
20	Edith Keller-Herrmann	East Germany	4	49	26	19	4	72.4	0 – 1 – 1	2	0 – 0 – 3	3

Notes

Only players participating in at least four Olympiads are included in this table.
Medals indicated in the order gold - silver - bronze. The statistics of individual medals includes only medals which are awarding to the top three individual players on each board. The medals for overall performance rating (awarded in 1984–2006) are not included into this statistics, but are listed separately below the table.
Nona Gaprindashvili played eleven Olympiads for the Soviet Union, and one for Georgia. She won another one individual gold medal and one individual bronze medal for overall performance rating. In total she won 9 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze individual medals.
Pia Cramling won another one individual silver medal and one individual bronze medal for overall performance rating. In total she won 3 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze individual medals.
Zsófia Polgár won another one individual gold medal for overall performance rating. In total she won 3 gold and 1 bronze individual medals.
Wang Lei won another one individual gold medal for overall performance rating. In total she won 2 individual gold medals.
Zsuzsa Polgár played three Olympiads for Hungary, and one for the United States (as Susan Polgar). She won another one individual gold medal and two individual bronze medals for overall performance rating. In total she won 2 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze individual medals.
Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant played her first Olympiad for the Soviet Union, then four for Georgia and four for Scotland. She won another one individual gold medal and one individual bronze medal for overall performance rating. In total she won 3 gold and 2 bronze individual medals.
Alisa Galliamova played her first Olympiad for the Soviet Union, then one for Ukraine (as Galliamova-Ivanchuk) and three for Russia. She won another two individual silver medals for overall performance rating. In total she won 4 individual silver medals.
Zhao Xue won another two individual gold medals and one individual bronze medal for overall performance rating. In total she won 5 gold and 1 bronze individual medals.
Maia Chiburdanidze played her first seven Olympiads for the Soviet Union, the rest for Georgia. She won another one individual gold medal and three individual bronze medals for overall performance rating. In total she won 5 gold, 2 silver and 6 bronze individual medals.
Hou Yifan won another one individual bronze medal for overall performance rating. In total she won 1 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze individual medals.
Sarasadat Khademalsharieh played four Olympiads for Iran, and one for Spain.
Nana Ioseliani played her first two Olympiads for the Soviet Union, the rest for Georgia. She won another one individual silver medal and one individual bronze medal for overall performance rating. In total she won 2 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze individual medals.
Zhu Chen won another two individual gold medals for overall performance rating. In total she won 4 gold and 1 silver individual medals.

External links

http://www.olimpbase.org/index.html?http%3A%2F%2Fwww.olimpbase.org%2Folympiads%2Fwomen_results.html