32nd Chess Olympiad — Yerevan 1996

For the first time an Olympiad was staged in Armenia, a nation that treats chess almost as a national religion. Amid that fervour Russia, again captained by Garry Kasparov, produced a commanding run to 38½ points and a third consecutive team gold, while a reborn United States climbed back onto the podium for the first time since the end of the Cold War.

◇Chess comes to Yerevan

One hundred and fourteen teams gathered in the Armenian capital for fourteen rounds of four-board Swiss competition. Russia arrived as overwhelming favourites and played the part, driven by Kasparov on top board. They finished on 38½ points — a wide margin — to secure their third straight Olympiad title since the country began competing under its own flag.

Kasparov himself delivered the tournament's finest individual showing, a rating performance of 2873 that no one else approached; the next best marks belonged to Ukraine's Vasyl Ivanchuk and the American Alexander Yermolinsky.

◇The chase for silver and bronze

Ukraine, led by Ivanchuk, took silver on 35 points. The bronze medals went to the United States on 34, half a point clear of England on tiebreak, with Armenia's first team and Spain sharing the next places on 33½. For the Americans — several of whose players had themselves been born in Eastern Europe — it was a return to Olympic honours after a long absence, marking how the map of world chess had been redrawn since 1991.

The individual board golds were spread widely: Mohamad Al-Modiahki of Qatar topped board one at 80%, and England's Matthew Sadler led the fourth boards.