1st Chess Olympiad — London 1927

Incomplete record. This archive holds 281 games of this event; the others are missing, and the number played is not established.

The very first Chess Olympiad brought sixteen national teams to the Westminster Central Hall in London, a team tournament staged by the newly energised FIDE to knit the chess world together. Hungary, led by the veteran Géza Maróczy, won the inaugural gold with 40 board points, half a point clear of Denmark, and set the template for a competition that has run ever since.

◇A new competition

Held under the banner of FIDE, the London event was conceived as a friendly tournament of nations alongside other festivities meant to promote the game. Sixteen teams entered — all from Europe save for Argentina — fielding some seventy players in a four-board round robin. The title was decided simply on total board (game) points, and matches were contested at the classical pace of the day: ninety minutes for thirty moves, then thirty minutes for each further ten.

The 1st Women's World Chess Championship ran during the same festival, won by the young Vera Menchik — the beginning of her long reign and a milestone the Olympiad has carried alongside the open event ever since.

◇Hungary takes the first gold

Hungary finished on 40 points to claim the inaugural championship, with Denmark second on 38½ and the host nation, Great Britain, third on 36½. The Netherlands (35), Czechoslovakia (34½) and Germany (34) filled out the top six, the leading teams separated by only narrow margins over a fortnight of play. These are the official final standings.

Individual honours went to the board-one men. England's George Alan Thomas and Denmark's Holger Norman-Hansen shared the best overall score on 12/15, ahead of Richard Réti of Czechoslovakia on 11½/15; Maróczy anchored the Hungarian effort on the top board on his way to team gold.