17th Chess 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.
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 so-called 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
- HUN-born
Final B # Country Points MP 15 Netherlands37 16 Poland31½ 17 Austria30 18 Switzerland28½ 15 19 Israel28½ 13 20 Finland28 21 England27½ 22 Colombia26½ 23 Canada25½ 24 Sweden24½ 25 Belgium23 26 France20 27 Indonesia18 28 Scotland15½
Final C # Country Points MP 29 Italy38 30 Mongolia33½ 31 Philippines31 32 Greece29 33 Uruguay28 34 Tunisia26½ 35 Turkey25½ 36 Venezuela25 12 37 Portugal25 10 38 Chile23½ 9 39 Ecuador23½ 8 40 Ireland21 41 Puerto Rico18½ 42 Luxembourg16
Individual medals
- Board 1:
Tigran Petrosian 11½ / 13 = 88.5% - Board 2:
Oscar Panno 14 / 18 = 77.8% - Board 3:
Mikhail Tal 12 / 13 = 92.3% - Board 4:
Christian Langeweg 12 / 15 = 80.0% - 1st reserve:
Viktor Korchnoi 10½ / 13 = 80.8% - 2nd reserve:
László Bárczay 11 / 12 = 91.7%
References
- Although commonly referred to as the men's division, this section is open to both male and female players.
- 17th Chess Olympiad: Havana 1966 OlimpBase