10th Chess Olympiad

The poster of the 1952 Chess Olympiad.

The 10th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open team tournament, as well as several other events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between August 9 and August 31, 1952, in Helsinki, Finland.

The Olympiad was especially notable for the debut of the Soviet team, who instantly won their first gold medals and went on to completely dominate the Olympiads for the next four decades.

After the tournament, it was generally agreed that the small preliminary and final groups of only 8-9 teams left too much open to chance, since a single blunder would have too big an impact on the final standings. Consequently FIDE decided that in the future, no final should have less than 12 participants.

Results

Preliminaries

Twenty-five teams entered the competition and were divided into three preliminary groups of eight or nine teams. The top three from each group advanced to Final A, the teams placed fourth-sixth to Final B, and the rest to Final C. All groups and finals were played as round-robin tournaments.

Group 1 was won by Argentina, ahead of West Germany and Czechoslovakia. England, Denmark, and Cuba took the following places, while Iceland, Saar, and Luxembourg finished in the bottom third.

Sweden took first place in group 2, ahead of Hungary and Yugoslavia. East Germany, Austria, and Italy took places four through six, while Brazil and Norway finished seventh and eighth.

Group 3 was won by the Soviet Union, well ahead of the United States and the Finnish hosts. Israel, the Netherlands, and Poland took the following places, while Switzerland and Greece finished at the bottom.

Final

Final A

#	Country	Players	Points
1	Soviet Union	Keres, Smyslov, Bronstein, Geller, Boleslavsky, Kotov	21
2	Argentina	Najdorf, J. Bolbochán, Eliskases, Pilnik, Rossetto	19½
3	Yugoslavia	Gligorić, Rabar, Trifunović, Pirc, Fuderer, Milić	19
4	Czechoslovakia	Filip, Pachman, Šajtar, Kottnauer, Zíta, Pithart	18
5	United States	Reshevsky, Evans, Robert Byrne, Bisguier, Koltanowski, Berliner	17
6	Hungary	Szabó, Barcza, Szily, Flórián, Pogáts, Molnár	16
7	Sweden	Ståhlberg, Stoltz, Lundin, Sköld, Johansson, Danielsson	13
8	West Germany	Teschner, Schmid, Pfeiffer, Heinicke, Lange, Rellstab	10½
9	Finland	Böök, Ojanen, Kaila, Salo, Fred, Niemelä	10

Final B

#	Country	Points	MP
10	Netherlands	21
11	Israel	19½
12	Poland	16½	10
13	East Germany	16½	7
14	Denmark	16
15	Cuba	15
16	England	14
17	Austria	13
18	Italy	12½

Final C

#	Country	Points	MP	Head-to-head
19	Brazil	18½
20	Greece	13½
21	Norway	13	6	2½
22	Switzerland	13	6	1½
23	Iceland	12½	8
24	Saar	12½	5
25	Luxembourg	1

Individual medals

• Board 1: Miguel Najdorf 12½ / 16 = 78.1%
• Board 2: Vassily Smyslov 10½ / 13 = 80.8%
• Board 3: David Bronstein 8 / 10 = 80.0%
• Board 4: Čeněk Kottnauer 12½ / 15 = 83.3%
• 1st reserve: Hector Rossetto 8 / 10 = 80.0%
• 2nd reserve: Ludwig Rellstab 6½ / 9 = 72.2%

References

• 10th Chess Olympiad: Helsinki 1952 OlimpBase