17th Chess Olympiad

The official poster for the Olympiad.

The 17th 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 October 23 and November 20, 1966, in Havana, Cuba.

The Soviet team with 6 GMs, led by world champion Petrosian, lived up to expectations and won their eighth consecutive gold medals, with the United States and Hungary taking the silver and bronze, respectively.

Ex-champion Tal was beaten up in a bar shortly before the Olympiad and missed the first five rounds due to his injuries.

When Hungary and Yugoslavia tied on both game and match points, and they had drawn 2-2 with each other, the rules dictated that the final ranking would be decided by using the Neustadtl score - but not which version of it. A socalled unweighted score was used, which placed Hungary ahead of Yugoslavia, giving them the bronze medals. Had the weighted variant been used instead, the result would have been the other way around.

Results

Preliminaries

A total of 52 teams entered the competition and were divided into seven preliminary groups of seven or eight teams each. The top two from each group advanced to Final A, the teams placed 3rd-4th to Final B, no. 5-6 to Final C, and the rest to Final D. All preliminary groups and finals were played as round-robin tournaments. The preliminary results were as follows:

Group 1: 1. Soviet Union, 2. Spain, 3. Switzerland, 4. Sweden, 5. Philippines, 6. Uruguay, 7. Monaco, 8. Hong Kong.
Group 2: 1. Yugoslavia, 2. Iceland, 3. Indonesia, 4. Austria, 5. Turkey, 6. Mongolia, 7. Mexico.
Group 3: 1. United States, 2. Norway, 3. Poland, 4. Israel, 5. Ecuador, 6. Portugal, 7. Bolivia.
Group 4: 1. Argentina, 2. Denmark, 3. England, 4. France, 5. Ireland, 6. Chile, 7. South Africa.
Group 5: 1. Czechoslovakia, 2. East Germany, 3. Canada, 4. Scotland, 5. Italy, 6. Luxembourg, 7. Cyprus.
Group 6: 1. Hungary, 2. Cuba, 3. Netherlands, 4. Belgium, 5. Venezuela, 6. Tunisia, 7. Panama, 8. Lebanon.
Group 7: 1. Romania, 2. Bulgaria, 3. Colombia, 4. Finland, 5. Greece, 6. Puerto Rico, 7. Morocco, 8. Nicaragua.

Final

Final A
#	Country	Players	Points	MP	Head- to-head	NS
1	Soviet Union	Petrosian, Spassky, Tal, Stein, Korchnoi, Polugaevsky	39½
2	United States	Fischer, Byrne, Benko*, Evans, Addison, Rossolimo	34½
3	Hungary	Portisch, Szabó, Bilek, Lengyel, Forintos, Bárczay	33½	20	2	232.25
4	Yugoslavia	Gligorić, Ivkov, Parma, Matanović, Matulović, Čirić	33½	20	2	229.75
5	Argentina	Najdorf, Panno, Bolbochán, Sanguineti, García, Schweber	30
6	Czechoslovakia	Pachman, Hort, Filip, Kaválek, Jansa, Ujtelky*	29½
7	Bulgaria	Minev, Bobotsov, Tringov, Padevsky, Kolarov, Popov	28½
8	Romania	Gheorghiu, Ciocâltea, Ghiţescu, Soós*, Drimer, Stanciu	26½
9	East Germany	Uhlmann, Pietzsch, Fuchs, Malich, Zinn, Liebert	25½
10	Denmark	Larsen, Brinck-Claussen, Andersen, Enevoldsen, Holm, Pedersen	20
11	Iceland	Friðrik Ólafsson, Ingi Randver Jóhannsson, Guðmundur Pálmason, Freysteinn Þorbergsson, Gunnar Gunnarsson, Guðmundur Sigurjónsson	19
12	23x15px Spain	Pomar, Medina García, Menvielle Lacourrelle, Calvo Mínguez, Franco Raymundo, Pérez Gonsalves	18
13	Norway	Johannessen, Zwaig, Hoen, Kristiansen, De Lange, Wibe	14
14	Cuba	Jiménez Zerquera, Ortega, Cobo Arteaga, Rodríguez Gonzáles, García Martínez, Santa Cruz	12

HUN-born

Final B
#	Country	Points	MP
15	Netherlands	37
16	Poland	31½
17	Austria	30
18	Switzerland	28½	15
19	Israel	28½	13
20	Finland	28
21	England	27½
22	Colombia	26½
23	Canada	25½
24	Sweden	24½
25	Belgium	23
26	France	20
27	Indonesia	18
28	Scotland	15½

Final C
#	Country	Points	MP
29	Italy	38
30	Mongolia	33½
31	Philippines	31
32	Greece	29
33	Uruguay	28
34	Tunisia	26½
35	Turkey	25½
36	Venezuela	25	12
37	Portugal	25	10
38	Chile	23½	9
39	Ecuador	23½	8
40	Ireland	21
41	Puerto Rico	18½
42	Luxembourg	16