36th Chess Olympiad

The 36th Chess Olympiad (; ), organized by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) 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 events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between October 14 and October 31, 2004, in Calvià on the Spanish island of Mallorca. There were 129 teams in the open event and 87 in the women's event. In total, 1204 players were registered (some of whom did not play, though).

Both tournament sections were officiated by international arbiter Ignatius Leong (Singapore). Teams were paired across the 14 rounds of competition according to the Swiss system. The open division was played over four boards per round, whilst the women's was played over three. In the event of a draw, the tie-break was decided by 1. The Buchholz system; 2. Match points; 3. The Sonneborn–Berger system; and 4. The Median-Buchholz system.

The time control for each game permitted each player 90 minutes for all their moves, with an additional 30 seconds increment for each player after each move, beginning with the first.

Open event

The open division was contested by 129 teams representing 125 nations. Spain, as hosts, fielded three teams, whilst the International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) and the International Physically Disabled Chess Association (IPCA) each provided one squad.

Led by first board Vasyl Ivanchuk, the seventh highest-rated player at the tournament, who recorded 9½ points over 13 rounds, and second reserve Sergey Karjakin who, aged just 14 years, won 6 of his 7 games (surrendering a draw only to American Gregory Kaidanov), Ukraine scored all four possible points in each of their first three matches before "only" defeating Russia 2½-1½ in the fourth round, eventually accumulating a nearly insurmountable three-point lead after the penultimate round. The Ukrainian team nevertheless scored three points against France and claimed their first title, three points ahead of Russia, who had entered the tournament as the top seed, having brought four of the tournament's nine highest-rated players, and as defending six-time champions.

Armenia, one of just four teams to draw a match with Ukraine, paced by second board Levon Aronian, who did not lose in 12 games, and third board Rafael Vaganian, who scored 8½ points in 11 games, lost 1½-2½ to Russia in the eighth round. Ultimately, on the strength of a 3½-½ final round defeat of Georgia, they tied Russia's 36½ points. Armenia were placed after Russia, though, on the Buchholz tie-breaker system employed by the Olympiad, and finished, as in the previous Olympiad, with the bronze medals. Hosts Spain, led by Alexei Shirov, just managed to squeeze into the top ten.

Notable absentees from the tournament were the no. 1 player in the world, Garry Kasparov, as well as classical World Champion Vladimir Kramnik and his challenger Peter Leko, who were just finishing their championship match (Kramnik retained his title with a 7–7 tie). FIDE Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov was present, however, and led Uzbekistan to 14th place by going undefeated in his 8 games (+4-0=4).

{| class="wikitable" |+ Open event ! # !! Country !! Players !! Averagerating !! Points !! Buchholz |- | style="background:gold;"|1 || || Ivanchuk, Ponomariov, Volokitin, Moiseenko, Eljanov, Karjakin || 2680 || 39½ || |- | style="background:silver;"|2 || || Morozevich, Svidler, Grischuk, Dreev, Khalifman, Zvjaginsev || 2718 || 36½ || 460.0 |- | style="background:#cc9966;"|3 || || Akopian, Aronian, Vaganian, Lputian, Sargissian, Minasian || 2660 || 36½ || 459.0 |- | 4 || || Onischuk, Shabalov, Goldin, Kaidanov, Novikov, Gulko || 2623 || 35 || |- | 5 || || Gelfand, Sutovsky, Smirin, Avrukh, Huzman, Roiz || 2670 || 34½ || |- | 6 || || Viswanathan Anand, Krishnan Sasikiran, Pendyala Harikrishna,Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Abhijit Kunte, Chanda Sandipan || 2655 || 34 || |- | 7 || || Domínguez, Bruzón, Delgado, Nogueiras, Arencibia, Quezada || 2596 || 33½ || |- | 8 || || Van Wely, Sokolov, Tiviakov, Timman, Van den Doel, Nijboer || 2641 || 33 || |- | 9 || || Georgiev, Delchev, Cheparinov, Spasov, Chatalbashev, Radulski || 2584 || 32½ || 453.0 |- | 10 || || Shirov, Vallejo Pons, Illescas Córdoba, Cifuentes Parada, Romero Holmes, Arizmendi Martínez || 2643 || 32½ || 439.5 |} {| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" ! # !! Country !! Averagerating !! Points !! Buchholz !! MP |- | 11 || || 2569 || 32½ || 427.5 || |- | 12 || || 2624 || 32 || 445.5 || |- | 13 || || 2559 || 32 || 442.5 || |- | 14 || || 2550 || 32 || 440.5 || |- | 15 || || 2568 || 32 || 435.0 || |- | 16 || || 2617 || 32 || 430.0 || |- | 17 || || 2575 || 32 || 427.5 || |- | 18 || || 2609 || 32 || 424.0 || |- | 19 || || 2502 || 32 || 422.5 || |- | 20 || || 2590 || 32 || 417.5 || |- | 21 || || 2621 || 31½ || 462.0 || |- | 22 || || 2615 || 31½ || 450.5 || |- | 23 || || 2621 || 31½ || 449.0 || |- | 24 || || 2612 || 31½ || 438.5 || |- | 25 || || 2532 || 31½ || 428.0 || |- | 26 || || 2483 || 31½ || 425.0 || |- | 27 || || 2542 || 31½ || 420.0 || |- | 28 || || 2563 || 31½ || 419.5 || |- | 29 || || 2589 || 31 || 445.0 || |- | 30 || || 2653 || 31 || 427.0 || |- | 31 || || 2614 || 31 || 425.5 || |- | 32 || || 2544 || 31 || 423.5 || 17 |- | 33 || || 2539 || 31 || 423.5 || 15 |- | 34 || || 2544 || 31 || 419.5 || |- | 35 || || 2488 || 31 || 418.5 || |- | 36 || || 2589 || 30½ || 432.5 || |- | 37 || || 2545 || 30½ || 431.0 || |- | 38 || || 2494 || 30½ || 426.0 || |- | 39 || || 2549 || 30½ || 419.5 || |- | 40 || || 2486 || 30½ || 407.5 || |- | 41 || || 2485 || 30½ || 396.5 || |- | 42 || || 2521 || 30 || 419.0 || |- | 43 || || 2454 || 30 || 403.0 || |- | 44 || "B" || 2494 || 29½ || 424.0 || |- | 45 || || 2569 || 29½ || 422.0 || |- | 46 || || 2562 || 29½ || 415.5 || |- | 47 || || 2496 || 29½ || 413.5 || |- | 48 || || 2397 || 29½ || 408.0 || |- | 49 || || 2456 || 29½ || 406.5 || |- | 50 || || 2365 || 29½ || 404.0 || |- | 51 || || 2515 || 29 || 416.5 || |- | 52 || || 2497 || 29 || 411.5 || |- | 53 || || 2460 || 29 || 405.0 || |- | 54 || || 2473 || 29 || 403.0 || |- | 55 || || 2387 || 29 || 395.0 || 16 |- | 56 || || 2427 || 29 || 395.0 || 13 |- | 57 || IPCA || 2348 || 29 || 394.5 || |- | 58 || || 2444 || 28½ || 406.5 || |- | 59 || || 2481 || 28½ || 406.0 || |- | 60 || || 2476 || 28½ || 400.5 || 14 |- | 61 || || 2303 || 28½ || 400.5 || 12 |- | 62 || || 2444 || 28½ || 396.5 || |- | 63 || || 2354 || 28½ || 387.0 || 14 |- | 64 || || 2431 || 28½ || 387.0 || 13 |- | 65 || || 2332 || 28½ || 383.5 || |- | 66 || || 2410 || 28½ || 355.0 || |- | 67 || || 2437 || 28 || 403.5 || |- | 68 || || 2400 || 28 || 393.0 || |- | 69 || || 2298 || 28 || 381.5 || |- | 70 || || 2241 || 28 || 370.0 || |- | 71 || || 2381 || 27½ || 402.0 || |- | 72 || || 2424 || 27½ || 401.0 || |- | 73 || || 2341 || 27½ || 397.0 || |- | 74 || || 2410 || 27½ || 385.5 || |- | 75 || || 2281 || 27½ || 377.0 || |- | 76 || || 2342 || 27½ || 356.0 || |- | 77 || || 2354 || 27 || 398.0 || |- | 78 || || 2305 || 27 || 390.0 || |- | 79 || || 2399 || 27 || 386.0 || |- | 80 || || 2363 || 27 || 384.5 || |- | 81 || "C" || 2334 || 27 || 383.5 || |- | 82 || || 2325 || 27 || 381.5 || |- | 83 || || 2276 || 27 || 369.5 || |- | 84 || || 2370 || 26½ || 397.5 || |- | 85 || || 2316 || 26½ || 383.0 || |- | 86 || || 2281 || 26½ || 375.5 || |- | 87 || || 2252 || 26½ || 372.0 || |- | 88 || || 2136 || 26½ || 351.0 || |- | 89 || || 2289 || 26 || 382.5 || |- | 90 || || 2337 || 26 || 379.0 || |- | 91 || || 2188 || 26 || 368.5 || |- | 92 || || 2264 || 26 || 367.5 || |- | 93 || || 2226 || 26 || 365.0 || |- | 94 || || 2212 || 26 || 358.0 || |- | 95 || || 2174 || 25½ || 358.5 || |- | 96 || || 1986 || 25½ || 340.5 || |- | 97 || IBCA || 2358 || 25 || 370.5 || |- | 98 || || 2279 || 25 || 368.5 || |- | 99 || || 2260 || 25 || 358.5 || |- | 100 || || 2245 || 24½ || 376.5 || |- | 101 || || 2141 || 24½ || 363.0 || |- | 102 || || 2070 || 24½ || 362.5 || |- | 103 || || 2184 || 24½ || 355.5 || |- | 104 || || 2187 || 24½ || 350.0 || |- | 105 || || 2137 || 24½ || 347.0 || |- | 106 || || 2179 || 24½ || 301.0 || |- | 107 || || 1906 || 24 || 352.5 || |- | 108 || || 2186 || 24 || 336.0 || |- | 109 || || 2202 || 23½ || 360.5 || |- | 110 || || 2119 || 23½ || 348.5 || |- | 111 || || 2207 || 23½ || 341.0 || |- | 112 || || 2122 || 23½ || 301.0 || |- | 113 || || 2157 || 23½ || 300.5 || |- | 114 || || 2127 || 23½ || 299.0 || |- | 115 || || 1866 || 23½ || 248.0 || |- | 116 || || 2137 || 23 || 357.5 || |- | 117 || || 2201 || 23 || 344.5 || |- | 118 || || 1904 || 23 || 314.5 || |- | 119 || || 2098 || 22 || 293.5 || |- | 120 || || 2152 || 22 || 276.5 || |- | 121 || || 2170 || 21½ || 313.5 || |- | 122 || || 2003 || 21½ || 282.5 || |- | 123 || || 1812 || 21 || || |- | 124 || || 1832 || 20½ || || |- | 125 || || 1824 || 18½ 1 || || |- | 126 || || 1750 || 17 || || |- | 127 || || 1866 || 15½ 1 || || |- | 128 || || 1600 || 13½ || || |- | 129 || || 1766 || 11½ || ||

1 Bermuda actually scored 22 and Papua New Guinea 23 points, but because some of their players refused to submit to doping tests, the points scored by those players were deducted from the final scores: 3½ points from Bermuda and 7½ from Papua New Guinea.

Group prizes

In addition to the overall medals, prizes were given out to the best teams in five different seeding groups—in other words, the teams who exceeded their seeding the most. Overall medal winners were not eligible for group prizes.

{| class="wikitable" |+ Group Prizes ! Group !! Seedingrange !! Team !! Seed !! Overallfinish |- | A || 1–25 || || 10 || 4 |- | B || 26–51 || || 29 || 13 |- | C || 52–77 || || 54 || 43 |- | D || 78–103 || || 83 || 61 |- | E || 104–129 || || 112 || 87

Individual medals

Performance rating: Baadur Jobava 2842 Board 1: Evgenij Ermenkov 10½ / 12 = 87.5% Board 2: Mohamed Tissir 7½ / 9 = 83.3% Board 3: Rafael Vaganian 9½ / 12 = 79.2% Board 4: Baadur Jobava 8½ / 10 = 85.0% 1st reserve: Vaidas Sakalauskas 6 / 7 = 85.7% 2nd reserve: Sergey Karjakin and Ibrahim Chahrani 6½ / 7 = 92.9%

Women's event

The women's division was contested by 87 teams representing 84 nations. Spain, as hosts, fielded two teams, whilst the International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) and the International Physically Disabled Chess Association (IPCA) each provided one squad.

China, led by first board Xie Jun (ex-World Champion) and second board Xu Yuhua (future champion), entered the competition as top seed and defending triple champions and quickly took the lead, conceding just two draws in their first five matches. They then defeated the silver and bronze medallists from the previous Olympiad, Russia and Poland (each 2–1), in the sixth and eighth rounds, respectively. Eventually they carried a six-point lead into a tenth round match with second placed United States.

Susan Polgar (another ex-World Champion), who entered the tournament as the second highest-rated player and achieved the best performance rating of all, drew Xie Jun, while Irina Krush won her second board game against Xu Yuhua. A draw by Anna Zatonskih against Zhao Xue gave the Americans a 2–1 win over the Chinese team. In rounds eleven and twelve, China drew Hungary and lost to Georgia, whilst the US team defeated Slovakia and then scored a 2½-½ victory over Hungary, drawing within three points of China with two rounds remaining. China, though, defeated sixth-seed India and 12th-seed Slovakia in the final two rounds, scoring four points to preserve what was ultimately a three-point win and to clinch the Vera Menchik Trophy for a fourth consecutive time.