The 45th World Chess Olympiad will be held from 10-23 September in Budapest, Hungary. It will be another milestone for Hungary which is one of the most successful chess nations with 12 team medals from Chess Olympiads.
All news related to the Chess Olympiad 2024 can be found here
Chess Olympiad 2024 – Playing venue
The Chess Olympiad 2024 will take place at the BOK Sports Hall, one of the most modern event centers in Hungary. The venue hosts over 120 professional exhibitions and sports events annually and can accommodate up to 10,000 people.
The BOK Sports Hall is located in the XIV. district of Budapest, and it was known as SAP Hall (2000-2003) or SYMA Sports and Events Centre (2003-2016). The center and comprises three halls: Hall ‘A’ (8000 m²), Hall ‘B’ (5200 m²), and Hall ‘C’ (2800 m²).
Chess Olympiad 2024 – Playing Format and Rules
The Chess Olympiad 2024 is played in two sections: Open and Women’s. Both tournaments are played in 11 rounds, swiss system, following the Olympiad Pairing Rules published by FIDE.
Each team (in both Open and Women’s sections) is comprised of four players, plus one reserve player. Each team needs to appoint a captain, who may also be one of the players (or the reserve). The captain is entitled to convey demands made by his players. If needed, the captain is permitted to appoint a deputy to exercise his functions.
The players cannot draw a game by mutual agreement before black’s 30th move. A claim for a draw before black’s 30th move is permitted only in case of threefold repetition.
In each section, matches are scored by match points. A win scores 2 points. A draw scores 1 point. A loss scores 0 points. A
team with the most number of match points in the final standings is declared Olympiad Champion.
Chess Olympiad 2024 – Registrations
All federations affiliated to FIDE, as well as IBCA, IPCA, and ICCD teams, have the right to participate in the event. In a historical move toward inclusivity, the 2024 Chess Olympiad will welcome a team of refugees, as officially approved by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Each team appoints four players and one reserve player, captain (may be one of the players or reserve), and Chief of delegation. The registrations will be done through the registration portal which will be launched soon. Logins and passwords for the registration portal access will be sent to the official e-mail addresses of national federations.
Chess Olympiad 2024 – Trophies and medals
The Winning team in each section receives the Trophy:
- The winning team in the Open section receives the “Hamilton-Russell Cup”
- The winning team in the Women’s section receives the “Vera Menchik Cup”
- The winning federation in the combined classification of the Chess Olympiad receives the “Nona Gaprindashvili Trophy”
The federation of the respective winning teams has custody of the Trophies, which are property of FIDE, until the following Chess Olympiad. In each section, every member of the winning team (players, reserves and captain) receives a gold medal. Similarly, the team finishing second receives silver medals and the team in third place receives bronze medals.
The best players per each board receive Individual Board Medals. The board medals are awarded according to players’ performance ratings (TPR). In order to be entitled to win the individual board medal, a player needs to play at least eight games.
Chess Olympiad 2024 – Schedule
The event kicks off on September 10th, 2024, with the Opening Ceremony. The first round of the event is scheduled for the 11th of September 2024, and it will be played at the same time each day, except from the 17th of September which is the free day. The time table of the event will be published in due time.
The Closing ceremony of the event will be held after the end of the last round.
Chess Olympiad 2024 – Official website
The official website of the Chess Olympiad 2024 hasn’t been launched by the date of writing this article. It is expected that the launch of the Official website will happen by the beginning of March 2024, altogether with the registration portal.
