35th Chess Olympiad — Bled 2002

◇The largest Olympiad yet

Bled welcomed 135 teams from 130 nations to the open event, a new record, contested over fourteen rounds of a four-board Swiss with a 90-minute-plus-30-second time control. The women's event ran in parallel with 90 teams across three boards. As the host reserve side, Slovenia "C" played hors concours — outside the competition — and appears unranked in the standings.

Russia fielded its heavyweights this time. Garry Kasparov, absent in 2000, anchored board one and produced a performance rating of 2933, the highest of the entire Olympiad — the engine behind Russia's charge.

◇Russia by a point

Russia finished on 38½ game points to take gold, one point ahead of Hungary's 37½ — the Hungarians' strongest Olympiad showing in years. Armenia claimed bronze on 35, with Georgia (34), China (33½) and the Netherlands (33½) close behind in a tightly bunched chase. Russia also collected the Nona Gaprindashvili Trophy for the best combined open-and-women's result.

The one-point winning margin echoed Istanbul two years earlier: even at full strength, Russia found no room to coast, and the medal was decided across the whole line-up rather than by a single dominant board.

◇A perfect nine

The most remarkable individual result came far from the top of the standings. Zimbabwe's Robert Gwaze won board-one gold with a perfect 9/9, one of the great Olympiad performances by a player from a smaller chess nation. Board medals also went to Monaco's Jean-Philippe Gentilleau, Indonesia's Cerdas Barus and Bahrain's Maher Ayyad. China won the women's event ahead of Russia and Poland.