The Women's Chess Olympiad is an event held by FIDE (the International Chess Federation) since 1957 (every two years since 1972), where national women's teams compete at chess for gold, silver and bronze medals. Since 1976 the Women's Chess Olympiad has been incorporated within Chess Olympiad events, with simultaneous women's and open tournaments.
The trophy for the winning women's team is known as the Vera Menchik Cup in honor of the first Women's World Chess Champion (1927–1944). The Soviet Union has won it the most often: 11 times. Before the break-up of the Soviet Union, it has also been won by Hungary led by three Polgár sisters (twice) and Israeli team fully composed of Soviet-born players (once in 1976 when it was boycotted by the Eastern Bloc). In the post-Soviet era, China have won the event six times, Georgia – four times, Russia – three times, Ukraine – two times and India – once.
From 1957 to 1974 the Women's Olympiad was a separate event (with except of the 1972 event). Since 1976 it has been held in the same place and at the same time as the open event.
* In 1976 the Soviet Union and other Socialist states did not compete for political reasons.
This trophy was created by FIDE in 1997 and named after Nona Gaprindashvili, the former women's World Champion (1962–1978). The trophy is awarded to the team that has the best overall performance across the open and women's divisions.
Russia won this trophy six times, China – three times, India and Ukraine – two times each.
Year | First | Second | Third |
---|---|---|---|
1998 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2000 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2002 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2004 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2006 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2008 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2010 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2012 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2014 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2016 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2018 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2022 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
2024 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
The table contains the women's teams ranked by the medals won at the Chess Olympiad, not including the unofficial events, ranked by the number of first place medals, ties broken by second-place medals, etc.
Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | 11 | 2 | 0 | 13 |
2 | ![]() | 6 | 4 | 4 | 14 |
3 | ![]() | 4 | 2 | 3 | 9 |
4 | ![]() | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 |
5 | ![]() | 2 | 5 | 2 | 9 |
6 | ![]() | 2 | 3 | 3 | 8 |
7 | ![]() | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
8 | ![]() | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
9 | ![]() | 0 | 5 | 2 | 7 |
10 | ![]() | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
![]() | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
12 | ![]() | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
![]() | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
14 | ![]() | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
![]() | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
16 | ![]() | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
17 | ![]() | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
![]() | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
![]() | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
Totals (19 entries) | 30 | 30 | 30 | 90 |
The table contains teams ranked by total number of medals won at the Chess Olympiad (not including the online or unofficial events) in the Open event (since 1927) and Women's event (since 1957), ranked by the number of first-place medals, ties broken by second-place medals, etc.
Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | 29 | 3 | 0 | 32 |
2 | ![]() | 9 | 6 | 6 | 21 |
3 | ![]() | 8 | 5 | 4 | 17 |
4 | ![]() | 6 | 8 | 10 | 24 |
5 | ![]() | 5 | 12 | 4 | 21 |
6 | ![]() | 4 | 5 | 6 | 15 |
7 | ![]() | 4 | 2 | 3 | 9 |
8 | ![]() | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7 |
9 | ![]() | 2 | 0 | 3 | 5 |
10 | ![]() | 1 | 7 | 7 | 15 |
11 | ![]() | 1 | 3 | 5 | 9 |
12 | ![]() | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
![]() | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
![]() | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
15 | ![]() | 0 | 5 | 2 | 7 |
16 | ![]() | 0 | 4 | 3 | 7 |
17 | ![]() | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
18 | ![]() | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
19 | ![]() | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
20 | ![]() | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
![]() | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
22 | ![]() | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
![]() | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
![]() | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
25 | ![]() | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
![]() | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | |
27 | ![]() | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
![]() | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
Totals (28 entries) | 75 | 75 | 75 | 225 |
Boldface denotes active chess players and highest medal count among all players (including these who not included in these tables) per type.
Rank | Player | Country | From | To | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Nona Gaprindashvili | ![]() ![]() | 1963 | 1992 | 11 | 1 | – | 12 |
2 | Maia Chiburdanidze | ![]() ![]() | 1978 | 2008 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 13 |
3 | Nana Alexandria | ![]() | 1969 | 1986 | 6 | – | – | 6 |
4 | Nana Ioseliani | ![]() ![]() | 1980 | 2000 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
5 | Zhao Xue | ![]() | 2002 | 2016 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
6 | Alexandra Kosteniuk | ![]() | 2002 | 2014 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
7 | Xie Jun | ![]() | 1990 | 2004 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7 |
8 | Zhu Chen | ![]() | 1994 | 2002 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
9 | Nino Gurieli | ![]() | 1992 | 2000 | 3 | 1 | – | 4 |
Irina Levitina | ![]() | 1972 | 1988 | 3 | 1 | – | 4 |
The table shows players who have won at least 6 team medals in total at the Chess Olympiads.
Rank | Player | Country | From | To | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Maia Chiburdanidze | ![]() ![]() | 1978 | 2008 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 13 |
2 | Nona Gaprindashvili | ![]() ![]() | 1963 | 1992 | 11 | 1 | – | 12 |
3 | Nana Ioseliani | ![]() ![]() | 1980 | 2000 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
4 | Zhao Xue | ![]() | 2002 | 2016 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
5 | Xie Jun | ![]() | 1990 | 2004 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7 |
6 | Anna Ushenina | ![]() | 2006 | 2022 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
7 | Nana Alexandria | ![]() | 1969 | 1986 | 6 | – | – | 6 |
8 | Alexandra Kosteniuk | ![]() | 2002 | 2014 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
9 | Natalia Zhukova | ![]() | 2006 | 2018 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 |
10 | Mária Ivánka | ![]() | 1969 | 1986 | – | 4 | 2 | 6 |
Elisabeta Polihroniade | ![]() | 1966 | 1986 | – | 4 | 2 | 6 | |
Zsuzsa Verőci-Petronić | ![]() | 1969 | 1986 | – | 4 | 2 | 6 |
The best individual results in order of overall percentage are:
Rank | Player | Country | Ol. | Gms. | + | = | – | % | Individual medals | Number of ind. medals | Team medals | Number of team medals |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Nona Gaprindashvili | ![]() ![]() | 12 | 128 | 94 | 26 | 8 | 83.6 | 8 – 3 – 0 | 11 | 11 – 1 – 0 | 12 |
2 | Nadezhda Kosintseva | ![]() | 5 | 51 | 36 | 13 | 2 | 83.3 | 4 – 0 – 0 | 4 | 2 – 1 – 1 | 4 |
3 | Pia Cramling | ![]() | 10 | 118 | 79 | 35 | 4 | 81.8 | 3 – 2 – 2 | 7 | 0 – 0 – 0 | 0 |
4 | Zsófia Polgár | ![]() | 4 | 48 | 32 | 13 | 3 | 80.2 | 2 – 0 – 1 | 3 | 2 – 1 – 0 | 3 |
5 | Wang Lei | ![]() | 4 | 32 | 21 | 8 | 3 | 78.1 | 1 – 0 – 0 | 1 | 2 – 1 – 1 | 4 |
6 | Zsuzsa (Susan) Polgár | ![]() ![]() | 4 | 56 | 31 | 25 | 0 | 77.7 | 1 – 2 – 1 | 4 | 2 – 2 – 0 | 4 |
7 | Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant | ![]() ![]() ![]() | 9 | 95 | 62 | 23 | 10 | 77.4 | 2 – 0 – 1 | 3 | 2 – 1 – 1 | 4 |
8 | Valentina Gunina | ![]() | 5 | 46 | 27 | 16 | 3 | 76.1 | 2 – 0 – 0 | 2 | 3 – 0 – 0 | 3 |
9 | Nana Alexandria | ![]() | 6 | 54 | 35 | 12 | 7 | 75.9 | 4 – 0 – 0 | 4 | 6 – 0 – 0 | 6 |
10 | Alisa Galliamova (Galliamova-Ivanchuk) | ![]() ![]() ![]() | 5 | 57 | 39 | 8 | 10 | 75.4 | 0 – 2 – 0 | 2 | 1 – 2 – 2 | 5 |
11 | Zhao Xue | ![]() | 8 | 81 | 49 | 24 | 8 | 75.3 | 3 – 0 – 0 | 3 | 3 – 3 – 1 | 7 |
12 | Maia Chiburdanidze | ![]() ![]() | 15 | 167 | 89 | 73 | 5 | 75.1 | 4 – 2 – 3 | 9 | 9 – 3 – 1 | 13 |
13 | Iman Hasan Al-Rufaye | ![]() | 5 | 48 | 31 | 10 | 7 | 75.0 | 1 – 2 – 0 | 3 | 0 – 0 – 0 | 0 |
14 | Hou Yifan | ![]() | 6 | 61 | 34 | 23 | 4 | 74.6 | 1 – 3 – 2 | 6 | 1 – 3 – 1 | 5 |
15 | Nino Batsiashvili | ![]() | 6 | 55 | 33 | 16 | 6 | 74.5 | 1 – 1 – 0 | 2 | 0 – 1 – 1 | 2 |
16 | Sarasadat Khademalsharieh | ![]() ![]() | 5 | 49 | 28 | 17 | 4 | 74.5 | 0 – 1 – 0 | 1 | 0 – 0 – 0 | 0 |
17 | Nana Ioseliani | ![]() ![]() | 8 | 88 | 49 | 32 | 7 | 73.9 | 2 – 2 – 1 | 5 | 5 – 1 – 1 | 7 |
18 | Zhu Chen | ![]() | 5 | 59 | 34 | 19 | 6 | 73.7 | 2 – 1 – 0 | 3 | 3 – 1 – 1 | 5 |
19 | Zsuzsa Verőci-Petronić | ![]() | 10 | 118 | 62 | 48 | 8 | 72.9 | 0 – 3 – 2 | 5 | 0 – 4 – 2 | 6 |
20 | Edith Keller-Herrmann | ![]() | 4 | 49 | 26 | 19 | 4 | 72.4 | 0 – 1 – 1 | 2 | 0 – 0 – 3 | 3 |
The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 and 2021, with a rapid time control that affected players' online ratings.
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Nona Gaprindashvili is a Georgian chess Grandmaster. Noted for her aggressive style of play, she was the women's world chess champion from 1962 to 1978, and in 1978 was the first woman ever to be awarded the FIDE title of Grandmaster. She was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Presidential Order of Excellence in 2015.
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Events in chess in 1990;
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