Hello everyone and welcome to the live countdown to the Chess Olympiad 2012 on Chessdom.com! We continue our daily minute by minute updates and six days before the official start of the event we will refresh the latest news regarding the Olympiad in Istanbul, interviews with top players, polls, photos, videos, and more.
Scroll down for all news in reverse chronological order.
Review: 7 days to the Chess Olympiad / 6 days to the Chess Olympiad
Chess Olympiad news / Participants men / Participants women
14:15 CET
As we can see the Turkish team are taking the task very seriously. One more proof is the photo published by WJCC GM Alexander Ipatov in his twitter @Ipatov_Chess. The caption reads, “The official suit of the Turkish National Chess Team for the Olympiad”
14:05 CET
Back in Turkey, the host teams are already underway with their preparation. One of the coaches, who is currently with part of the team at EYCC 2012, is GM Efstratios Grivas. He shared with Chessdom, “I think that this year we have the strongest team ever and we should fight for a top 20 places. The team is young and hungry for success, so my expectations are high!”
Turkey will have for the first time a World Champion at the top boards, after GM Alexander Ipatov won the World Junior Championship. More about the Turkish teams in an article by Elizabeth Paehtz.
13:50 CET
Talking about Spain, the Extremadura region is going to follow closely the Chess Olympiad. Their representative GM Manuel Pérez Candelario, born in Zafra, is going to play for the Spanish team. This is the third time Candelario plays for Spain, after being in the B team in Calvia and in the A team in the European Team Chess Championship 2005 in Goteborg.
13:35 CET
Jumping to another continent, we see the team of Uruguay preparing for the Chess Olympiad. The players are currently at a training camp at Baños de Montemayor that will continue until August 23rd. The coach at the training camp is GM Manuel Pérez Candelario, who will also be a player at the Olympiad, but for the team of Spain.
The training session will finish with a match between the teams of Uruguay and the Spanish Club Linex Magic. The women team of Uruguay will play with Linex Magic B team.
13:00 CET
Mentioning Aronian, we cannot skip bringing some news about Arianne Caoli as well. WIM Caoli will be the top board player for the team of Australia. Last year she spent several months in Armenia doing her dissertation on the country itself. She will be crossing fingers for Armenia’s success in the men section, but also will fully concentrate to help her teammates WIM Emma Guo, WIM Bilajna Novakovic-Dekic, Giang Nguyen, and Sally Yu in the women section.
12:45 CET
More on the history of Chess Olympiads tomorrow. Now we continue with news from the players. Levon Aronian mentioned in an extensive interview he is ready for the Chess Olympiad 2012. His main preparation with the team of Armenia has been a physical one, as the event is quite long and is followed by the Grand Slam Final Masters 2012. Aronian will arrive earlier than his teammates in Istanbul, to “dive into the atmosphere of the city”, something that he states to be essential for his performance.
Aroninan reminds that Armenia is favorite for the Chess Olympiad, as they won the World Team Championship and failed to win the European Team Championship only in the last round.
12:25 CET
The Women Chess Olympiads have alternated periods of domination by different nations. USSR won 4 out of the first 5 unofficial Women Olympiads, interrupted only by Romania. USA and Israel were convincing at the following events, only to be followed by 5 golds by USSR. Hungary took two consecutive events in 1988 and 1990 with the Polgar sisters dominating the scene, until Georgia came along and scored 3 consecutive gold medals. All changed again in 1998 with China coming to first place 3 times in the next six years.
Lately, with the fast development of women chess, the events have been more dynamic and the last Olympiads had different winners – Ukraine in 2006, Georgia in 2008, and Russia in 2012.
| Year | Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| 1957 | 1st Women’s Chess Olympiad | USSR 10½ | Romania 10½ | East Germany 10 |
| 1963 | 2nd Women’s Chess Olympiad | USSR 25 | Yugoslavia 24½ | East Germany 21 |
| 1966 | 3rd Women’s Chess Olympiad | Romania 22 | Hungary 20½ | East Germany 17 |
| 1969 | 4th Women’s Chess Olympiad | USSR 26 | Hungary 20½ | Czechoslovakia 19 |
| 1972 | 5th Women’s Chess Olympiad | USSR 11½ | Romania 8 | Hungary 8 |
| 1974 | 6th Women’s Chess Olympiad | USA 13½ | Romania 13½ | Bulgaria 13 |
| 1976 | 22nd Chess Olympiad | Israel 17 | England 11½ | Spain 11½ |
| 1978 | 23rd Chess Olympiad | USSR 16 | Hungary 11 | West Germany 11 |
| 1980 | 24th Chess Olympiad | USSR 32½ | Hungary 32 | Poland 26½ |
| 1982 | 25th Chess Olympiad | USSR 33 | Romania 30 | Hungary 26 |
| 1984 | 26th Chess Olympiad | USSR 32 | Bulgaria 27½ | Romania 27 |
| 1986 | 27th Chess Olympiad | USSR 33½ | Hungary 29 | Romania 28 |
| 1988 | 28th Chess Olympiad | Hungary 33 | USSR 32½ | Yugoslavia 28½ |
| 1990 | 29th Chess Olympiad | Hungary 35 | USSR 35 | China 29 |
| 1992 | 30th Chess Olympiad | Georgia 30½ | Ukraine 29 | China 28½ |
| 1994 | 31st Chess Olympiad | Georgia 32 | Hungary 31 | China 27 |
| 1996 | 32nd Chess Olympiad | Georgia 30 | China 28½ | Russia 28½ |
| 1998 | 33rd Chess Olympiad | China 29 | Russia 27 | Georgia 27 |
| 2000 | 34th Chess Olympiad | China 32 | Georgia 31 | Russia 28½ |
| 2002 | 35th Chess Olympiad | China 29½ | Russia 29½ | Poland 28 |
| 2004 | 36th Chess Olympiad | China 31 | USA 28 | Russia 27½ |
| 2006 | 37th Chess Olympiad | Ukraine 29½ | Russia 28 | China 27½ |
| 2008 | 38th Chess Olympiad | Georgia 18 | Ukraine 18 | USA 17 |
| 2010 | 39th Chess Olympiad | Russia 22 | China 18 | Georgia 16 |
12:05 CET
Here is the general standings by medals at the men Chess Olympiads. The standings follow the “Olympic” tiebreak, arranged by gold, silver (TB1), and bronze (TB2).
| Rank | Country | 1st place | 2nd place | 3rd place | Total |
| 1 | Soviet Union | 18 | 1 | 0 | 19 |
| 2 | Russia | 6 | 2 | 1 | 9 |
| 3 | Hungary | 5 | 7 | 2 | 14 |
| 4 | United States | 5 | 5 | 9 | 19 |
| 5 | Ukraine | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| 6 | Armenia | 2 | 0 | 3 | 5 |
| 7 | Yugoslavia | 1 | 7 | 5 | 13 |
| 8 | Poland | 1 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
| 9 | Czechoslovakia | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 10 | Germany* | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| 11 | England | 0 | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| 12 | Argentina | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| 13 | Netherlands | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 13 | Sweden | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 13 | Israel | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 16 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 16 | China | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 16 | Denmark | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 16 | Uzbekistan | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 20 | Bulgaria | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 20 | Estonia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 20 | Romania | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 20 | Switzerland | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
11:55 CET
Some statistics about the winners and medalists of the Olympiad history. The Chess Olympiads started with total domination by Hungary and United States. Until 1939 the only countries to interrupt them were the Czechoslovakia (the 1st unofficial Olympiad) and Poland (the 3rd Chess Olympiad).
After 1952 came the reign of USSR. The Soviet Union has the most gold medals, a total of 18 golds, 1 silver, and 0 bronze. They are followed / inherited by Russia that after 1989 has six gold medals and holds the second place in the overall standings. Third is Hungary with 5 golds, the same number has USA but with two bronze medals less. Other countries with gold medals are Ukraine (2), Armenia (2), Yugoslavia (1), Poland (1), Czechoslovakia (1), and Germany (1).
11:35 CET
The director of Chessity Janton van Apeldoorn commented, “The Chess Olympiad is the most anticipated chess event, including in itself the fighting team spirit that is unique for the chess world. It is no surprise that Russia, China, Germany, and USA are favorites, but I cannot hide that the games of Holland will be the most interesting for me.”
The team of Holland for this event (men section): GM Anish Giri, GM Jan Smeets, GM Ivan Sokolov, GM Daniel Stellwagen, GM Loek Van Wely, and (women section) WIM Anne Haast, IM Tea Lanchava, GM Peng Zhaoquin, WIM Lisa Schut, WIM Arlette Van Weersel.
11:15 CET
GM Vladimir Georgiev, who recently achieved yet another success in his career as a coach of Natalia Pogonina, is going to play on top board at the Olympiad. He shared with Chessdom, “My personal goal is to raise ELO at this Olympiad, while I hope the team finishes in top 30. The heavy favorites for the title are Russia and Armenia in the men section. In the women section not getting a gold medal will be failure for China.”
11:00 CET
Hello everyone and welcome to our third live preview of the Olympiad 2012 in Istanbul. It is the team chess event of the season and we continue following the news around the teams.
Yesterday you had the chance to see the opinions of IM Torstein Bae, GM Naiditsch, GM Miton, GM Julio Granda, coaches Dohoian and Rublevsky, WGM Natalia Pogonina, Theodoros Tsorbatzoglou, GM Mamedyarov, Peter Zhdanov, etc. We also presented you the playing hall plans, the official hotels of the Chess Olympiad 2012, the city of Istanbul.
Today we will upgrade those statements and information, and will have new players and chess specialists featured.
Russia will win.