15th Chess Olympiad

The 15th Chess Olympiad, organized by FIDE and comprising an open[1] team tournament, as well as several other events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between September 15 and October 10, 1962, in Varna, Bulgaria.
The Soviet team with 6 GMs, led by world champion Botvinnik, lived up to expectations and won their sixth consecutive gold medals, with Yugoslavia and Argentina taking the silver and bronze, respectively.
Results
Preliminaries
A total of 37 teams entered the competition and were divided into four preliminary groups of eight to ten teams each. The top three from each group advanced to Final A, the teams placed 4th-6th to Final B, and the rest to Final C, where they were joined by a Bulgarian "B" team that played outside the contest. All preliminary groups as well as Finals A and B were played as round-robin tournaments, while Final C with 14 teams was played as an 11 round Swiss system tournament.
The Soviet Union took first place in group 1, well ahead of the two German teams, East with half a point more than West. Sweden, Belgium, and Spain took the places 4-6, while Norway, Turkey, and Greece finished at the bottom of the group.
Group 2 was won by the United States, while the Bulgarian hosts and Romania were tied for second place. Israel, Mongolia, and Switzerland made up the middle part of the group, while Puerto Rico and Tunisia had to settle for Final C.
Yugoslavia clinched group 3, ahead of the Netherlands and Czechoslovakia. Poland, Iceland, and Finland had to settle for Final B. Meanwhile, France, Uruguay, Luxembourg, and Cyprus finished at the bottom of the group.
Group 4 was won by Argentina, ahead of Hungary and Austria. Denmark, Cuba, and England made up the middle part of the group, while Albania, India, Iran, and Ireland completed the field.
Final
Final A # Country Players Points MP 1 Soviet Union
Botvinnik, Petrosian, Spassky, Keres, Geller, Tal 31½ 2 Yugoslavia
Gligorić, Trifunović, Matanović, Ivkov, Parma, Minić 28 3 Argentina
Najdorf, Bolbochán, Panno, Sanguineti, Rossetto, Foguelman 26 4 United States
Fischer, Benko, Evans, R. Byrne, D. Byrne, Mednis 25 5 Hungary
Portisch, Szabó, Bilek, Barcza, Lengyel, Honfi 23 6 Bulgaria
Padevsky, Tringov, Minev, Kolarov, Milev, Popov 21½ 7 West Germany
Unzicker, Darga, Schmid, Tröger, Hecht, Mohrlok 21 8 East Germany
Uhlmann, Pietzsch, Malich, Zinn, Fuchs, Liebert 20½ 10 9 Romania
Ciocâltea, Ghiţescu, Gheorghiu, Soós, Radovici, Günsberger 20½ 9 10 Czechoslovakia
Filip, Pachman, Hort, Fichtl, Blatný, Trapl 18½ 11 Netherlands
Euwe, Donner, Bouwmeester, Langeweg, Prins, Kramer 18 12 Austria
Robatsch, Dückstein, Beni, Gragger, Kinzel, Lokvenc 10½ Final B # Country Points MP Matches
wonHead-to-head 13 Spain
26½ 16 14 England
26½ 14 15 Israel
25 16 Cuba
22½ 12 17 Sweden
22½ 11 4 2½ 18 Poland
22½ 11 4 1½ 19 Belgium
22 20 Finland
20½ 21 Mongolia
20 9 3 22 Switzerland
20 9 2 23 Iceland
19 24 Denmark
17 Final C # Country Points MP 25 Norway
32½ - Bulgaria "B"
29½ 26 Albania
28½ 17 27 Tunisia
28½ 16 28 India
26½ 29 Iran
25 30 France
23½ 31 Puerto Rico
22½ 32 Uruguay
22 33 Greece
18½ 34 Luxembourg
18 35 Turkey
17 36 Ireland
14½ 37 Cyprus
1½
Individual medals
- Board 1:
Friðrik Ólafsson 14 / 18 = 77.8%
- Board 2:
Tigran Petrosian 10 / 12 = 83.3%
- Board 3:
Boris Spassky 11 / 14 = 78.6%
- Board 4:
Borislav Ivkov and
Raúl Sanguineti 13½ / 16 = 84.4%
- 1st reserve:
Efim Geller 10½ / 12 = 87.5%
- 2nd reserve:
Mikhail Tal 10 / 13 = 76.9%
At the other end of the spectrum, Milton Ioannidis of Cyprus lost all of his 20 games, the worst score ever of any player at any Olympiad.
References
- ↑ Although commonly referred to as the men's division, this section is open to both male and female players.
- 15th Chess Olympiad: Varna 1962 OlimpBase