5th Chess Olympiad — Folkestone 1933

Incomplete record. This archive holds 273 games of this event; the others are missing, and the number played is not established.

The 5th Chess Olympiad came to the Kentish seaside town of Folkestone, where fifteen nations played a four-board round robin. The United States successfully defended its title, finishing on 39 board points, a clear 1½ points ahead of Czechoslovakia — the second link in a chain of American Olympiad victories that would run through the decade.

◇Fifteen nations at the seaside

Held from 12 to 23 June 1933, Folkestone drew fifteen teams into a single four-board round robin, the championship again settled on cumulative board points. Estonia had registered but never appeared, leaving fifteen nations to contest the medals. The United States fielded Isaac Kashdan, Frank Marshall, Reuben Fine, Arthur Dake and Albert Simonson — a deep line-up that scored heavily up and down the order.

As at Prague, the event doubled as a wider chess festival: the 4th Women's World Chess Championship was decided during the same gathering.

◇The Americans hold on

The United States finished first on 39 points, 1½ clear of Czechoslovakia on 37½. Behind them a logjam formed at 34, with Sweden edging Poland and Hungary on the tie-break to take bronze, and Austria just a half-point back on 33½.

Individual honours again went to the elite. Alexander Alekhine, still World Champion and playing board one for France, was the outstanding scorer with 9½ from 12 (79.2%). Karel Opočenský of Czechoslovakia produced the tournament's most crushing board result, 11½ from 13 (88.5%) on board four, while Marshall's steady work on the American second board helped keep the title in the United States.