1986 Dubai Chess Olympiad

The 27th Chess Olympiad organized by FIDE and comprising an open and a women's tournament, as well as several other events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between November 14 and December 2, 1986, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Many of the players in Dubai called this Olympiad the best organized ever. The hosts were said to have spent more than half a million pounds on beautifying the playing site alone. The lavish opening ceremony was a testament to the care taken to ensure that this was an enjoyable and memorable competition.
This boosted number of participating countries to a new record of 107. Of course Israel, officially in the state of war with most of Arab countries, couldn't participate. Some West European nations, namely Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands withdrew as an act of solidarity with Israel. Some individuals like Korchnoi, Hübner or Lobron refused to come to Dubai as well.
Apart from the mentioned above virtually all world's top players came to Dubai. Kasparov lead USSR team for the first time as reigning World Champion. England sent almost same people as two years ago and were among top favourites along with Hungary and Yugoslavia. USA were seeded 5th (aiming probably at fifth bronze in last seven appearances). Iceland were surprisingly seeded 6th. Lucerne silver medallists Czechoslovakia were deprived of Hort. Argentina had no best players in the squad - as usual.
Round 4 provided the first stiff test for the top men, with four of the top five seeds clashing. In these matches the Soviet Union beat Hungary 2½-1½ and England defeated the United States by the same margin. Wins by Karpov against Ribli an Short against Kavalek were the only decisive encounters. Iceland beat Australia 3-1 at table #3. Yugoslavia took runner-up position after defeating Indonesia and China entered top 5 thanks to hammering Egypt. The main news of day 5 was Karpov's loss - his first in an Olympiad since 1972 - to Ljubojević, who himself cannot have felt charitable after losing to an unconsidered Indonesian the day before. This was balanced out by a Sokolov win, so the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia finished all-square at 2-2. England, 2½-1½ victors in a hard match against Hungary joined Yugoslavia in second place .The England-USSR clash of round 6 was a tremendously exciting match. Four decisive results, four wins by White.
The top match of round 7 saw the Soviet Union leading Iceland 1½-½ after the first session of play but the Norsemen later levelled the match during the adjournment sessions. England beat Yugoslavia 2½-1½, Hungary defeated Canada 3½-½ and Bulgaria took three points against Czechoslovakia. Hungary and USA were in tied lead in the halfway, half a point ahead of England and USSR.
After three consecutive draws, the Soviet Union's team went one worse. Kasparov's loss, coupled with two drawn games, meant they ended the day 2-1 down against the United States with the remaining game also destined to be drawn. Worse still, main threat England chose precisely this moment to come good with a 4-0 win against Iceland and move into a significant lead. On the leader-board Hungary's 2½-1½ defeat of Yugoslavia was sufficient to limit their drop to second place behind England .
Who could have forecasted the drama of this wonderful last round? Three teams were in contention for gold medal but the USSR and England had significantly easier pairings than the USA, who had to play Bulgaria. As it turned out, the USA cracked. Only Fedorowicz could win and their match was tied 2-2. The GM norm for him was the only consolation of the day. England put in a mammoth effort by beating Brazil 4-0. In fact they didn't just beat them; they crushed them. It wasn't good enough. The Soviets won the gold after a ruthless 4-0 steamrolling of Poland. However there were quite serious suspicions (unsolved until today) that the Poles were forced not to disturb the Soviets because of obvious political reasons. Hungary halved with Cuba to stay in 4th. Iceland hammered Spain 3½-½ to take 5th spot.
USSR won again - but not without major trouble. Finally the five best players of the world and an extremely strong reserve finished where they really belonged. After crushing their first three opponents to take 11/12 they played five matches against their five closest rivals when they secured only a 50% score. The finish was successful though. Second place unlucky for England? Not really. They had their chances and Spain made a mess of them. They were not as good as the Soviets but to finish second was an excellent overall performance. Bronze went to USA, traditionally! They would probably have settled for that before the start of the Olympiad but as the games progressed they showed themselves to be a terrific team. Third-seeded Hungary never quite looked likely winners, although attaining a quite reasonable result, while fourth seeds Yugoslavia simply faded right out of contention at the halfway stage.