27th Chess Olympiad — Dubai 1986

◇A record field in the Gulf

A record 108 teams, drawn from 107 nations, gathered at Dubai for a fourteen-round Swiss on four boards — the first Olympiad held in the Arab world. Politics shadowed the entry list: Israel was unable to compete at the venue, and Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands stayed away in protest, with strong individuals such as Viktor Korchnoi, Robert Hübner and Eric Lobron also absent.

Points in the archive are game points across the four boards, the measure by which this exceptionally close Olympiad was settled.

◇Gold on the final day

For once the Soviet Union — Kasparov, Karpov, Sokolov, Yusupov, Vaganian and Tseshkovsky — had to fight to the last board. The United States led the table after the penultimate round before falling back to bronze on 38½, while England, on 39½, pressed the Soviets all the way. Only in the final round did the Soviet side secure gold, half a point clear on 40. Hungary (34½), Iceland and Bulgaria (both 34) trailed well behind the leading three.

It was the second straight Olympiad silver for England, confirming the team as the closest rival to Soviet supremacy in the mid-1980s.

◇Kasparov leads, Gaprindashvili is perfect

Garry Kasparov led the way on top board, taking board-one gold with 8½/11 and the best performance rating of the open event, 2746; his teammate Artur Yusupov won board four on 10/12, and England's Nigel Short took board three with 10/13. The most remarkable individual result, though, came in the women's event, where the 45-year-old former women's world champion Nona Gaprindashvili won all ten of her games on board three, a performance rating of 2877, as the Soviet women took their own gold.