World Record in Number of Countries Participating for the World Chess Olympiad

Blog  Press Release

The 44th Chess Olympiad scheduled at Mahabalipuram, Chennai will hit the record books as the Chess Olympiad with highest number of participating countries and teams, breaking the record set at the 43rd Chess Olympiad at Batumi, Georgia in 2018. This indeed is a cause for jubilation in a pandemic world where sporting activities are slowly limping back to normalcy.

A beaming Bharat Singh Chauhan, Secretary of All India Chess Federation ( AICF) and the Olympiad Director for this 2022 edition announced “We have 185 countries registered with 186 teams in the open section and 156 in the Women’s section. Batumi Olympiad had set a record with 179 countries with 184 teams in Open section and 150 in Women’s section. This is indeed a proud moment for all of us!”. Chess has travelled a long way and FIDE, the World Chess body which started the first official Olympiad in 1927 at London with 16 countries in fray too has reasons to celebrate this success after reposing faith in AICF to pull off this Herculean task in just about four months.

The icing on the cake is the confirmed participation of reigning World Chess Champion, Magnus Carlsen, the highest ever rated player on the planet. India as host country is eligible to field an extra team in both sections and has an opportunity to field a third team in case of odd number of entries.

After India was awarded the right to host the Chess Olympiad in February this year, things have moved in whirlwind fashion.  AICF has been literally working round the clock to ensure not only a smooth conduct of the event but also associating with FIDE to ensure monetary assistance to countries to field their teams. Efforts are also on to see that this Olympiad goes down in history books as one of the best organized Olympiad.

The convention Hall of the Four Points by Sheraton, Mahabalipuram is the venue and a temporary 50000 sqft, temporary structure is  being erected for the playing arena.

Dr. Sanjay Kapoor, President AICF was also elated and confided “Right from the time the Olympiad was awarded to us, we have been relentlessly working with a single minded focus , keeping the Olympic motto ‘swifter, higher, stronger’ in mind with regards to organizational aspects also”. The entire AICF team  working 24×7 was visibly excited to see such strong response to the Olympiad.