1972 Skopje Chess Olympiad

The 20th Chess Olympiad organized by FIDE and comprising an open team tournament, as well as several other events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between September 18 and October 13, 1972, in Skopje, Yugoslavia.
Majority of top world's players came to Skopje, but there were many notable absentees. USSR were missing Spassky who lost the World Champion title some months ago and newly reigning King of chess Bobby Fischer did not feel like visiting Skopje as just one of many players. He demanded special conditions to be granted including separate game hall for himself and this had been refused. The USA were weakened even more since Reshevsky, Evans and Lombardy were missing too.
Denmark played without Larsen and West Germany were missing Unzicker and Schmid. GM Rossolimo decided to go back to French team after many years spent in USA.
Argentina were missing all their top players and were likely to be far from where they used to be in the past. Mrs. S. Grumer for Virgin Islands was only woman in the pool and she was yet another woman to have failed to concede anything but series of losses... Unlike Siegen and Lugano there was no "carry on" rule and teams could meet twice along the event. For the very first time the ELO system was adopted and it was a basis for seeding the teams which were split into 8 qualifying groups and four final sections of 16 teams (with bottom section D having one team less).
At this Olympiad, sealed moves were written on a separate piece of paper, not the player's score sheet. Tringov rejected this way of sealing his move and instead wrote it on his score sheet. When the game was resumed, the arbiter opened the envelope. In the envelope was Korchnoi's score sheet but not the one belonging to Tringov. The arbiter ruled the game a forfeit win for Korchnoi. The Bulgarian team captain instituted protest proceedings but an arbitration committee upheld the arbiter's ruling. After the Olympiad was over, it was learned that Tringov had absentmindedly placed his score sheet in his pocket. Tringov discovered his mistake several days after his forfeit but was too ashamed to admit his mistake to the organizers of the Olympiad.
According to ELO list the USSR were big favourites of the final group with average rating of 2626 followed by Yugoslavia 2528, Hungary 2509, Czechoslovakia 2481 and East Germany 2458.
Hungary had excellent kick off beating the Soviets 2½-1½, second victory against USSR in their history this time earned thanks to Bilek who defeated Korchnoi. Yugoslavia lost to Czechoslovakia on the next day and although USSR beat West Germany we have seen first and only Petrosian's Olympic loss. GM Hübner was the conqueror. On the next day Hungary hammered East Germany and Czechoslovakia drew against USA team. Despite Padevsky's excellent win over Karpov in fourth round Bulgaria modestly lost to USSR and Hungary were happy to beat Poland 3-1.Czechoslovakia sensationally lost to Spain. Yugoslavia were in the lead with 1..2 points ahead of Hungary 11½ and Czechoslovakia 9½. The Soviets finally accelerated their moderate pace and wiped out East Germany in round 5. Sweden lost badly to tailenders from Sweden after Portisch's famous debut-debacle vs Andersson. The Soviet Union beat Yugoslavia in 11th round's summit thanks to veteran Smyslov who beat young start Ljubojević.
USSR earned 1 point advantage after 13th round because of their major win over Spain but then they barely halved with Argentina while Hungary defeated Holland.
Last round was decisive about the gold, this happened for the first time with participation of the USSR. Hungary had superior tie-break but were ½ point behind the leaders and matched West Germany, considered stronger than Romania against whom the Soviets played. The Germans missed two top players in their squad. Hübner retired for last round with best individual score at board 1 in his pocket and Pfleger had to match and beat a GM if he wanted to obtain a GM-norm. After adjournment time USSR were in the lead with 41½ points and one game to be finished (where Tal was lost); Hungary had 40 points and yet 2 games in hand, both of them hard to save. Csom lost and Portish drew (denying Pfleger's GM-norm) and USSR won the title, after hardest combat they have ever fought. Yugoslavia easily retained bronze medal position. Czechoslovakia came 4th because of good speed at the finish ahead of East Germany and Bulgaria. USA were down in 9th place.
Soviet's 11th consecutive gold medal had been reached with utmost troubles. They did not reach the score expected on a basis of their ratings. Savon was out of form and lost 2 games while others did not enchant the public also. Young Karpov's debut was highly promising and Tal scored top result for them. They won three gold medals for individual performance. Hungary were in superb form this time. They overcame their initial rating of 2509 by 50 points with a performance at 2561 level.

[@germanchris4440]

Great chess history beautifully presented! Thanks.

[@pinklady2151]

Thank you for video .Im from Skopje

[@marinagamm1951]

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