42nd Chess Olympiad

The 42nd Chess Olympiad, organized by FIDE, will take place in Baku, Azerbaijan in 2016. There were two other cities bidding to host the event – Albena in Bulgaria and Tallinn in Estonia. Both cities did not make presentations before the voting and hence were not approved.

The delegation of Armenia declared that participation of the Armenian chess players would be in that case impossible. Despite a protest of triple winners of the Chess Olympiad, due to the lack of other candidates for carrying out competition in 2016, the candidature of Baku was accepted.

Notes

Chess Olympiad

The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation.

The use of the name "Chess Olympiad" for FIDE's team championship is of historical origin and implies no connection with the Olympic Games.

Birth of the Olympiad

The first Olympiad was unofficial. For the 1924 Olympics an attempt was made to include chess in the Olympic Games but this failed because of problems with distinguishing between amateur and professional players. While the 1924 Summer Olympics was taking place in Paris, the 1st unofficial Chess Olympiad also took place in Paris. FIDE was formed on Sunday, July 20, 1924, the closing day of the 1st unofficial Chess Olympiad.

FIDE organised the first Official Olympiad in 1927 which took place in London. The Olympiads were occasionally held annually and at irregular intervals until World War II; since 1950 they have been held regularly every two years.

Recognized sport