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Chess 02 Aug 1992, Sun The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts) Newspapers.com
Chess: Hydra-headed Monster Stalks World Chess Match by Shelby Lyman
Although teams from the Soviet Union have won virtually every World Chess Olympics held during the last 40 years, the traditional four-board Olympic format showcased only a fraction of the Soviet talent available.
Perhaps naively, players and experts from other countries welcomed the breakup of the Soviet chess colossus as an occasion of new opportunity in Olympic chess competition. Instead they have found themselves presented with a curious phenomenon.
At the recent 1992 World Chess Olympics in Manila, in place of the customary Soviet men's and women's teams, they were forced to contend with a hydra-headed monster of 24 teams from 13 former Soviet republics.
In the 102-team men's section, easily won by Russia who scored 39 points, teams from former republics took six of the first none places. An unheralded entry from Uzbekistan finished second with 35 points. In third with 34.5 points was Armenia, a half point ahead of the United States.
After losing to an untitled Lithuanian player, former U.S. Champion Joe Benjamin exclaimed: “Can't they put the country back together again?”
Women's teams from the thirteen republics achieved a comparable success when Georgia and the Ukraine finishing one-two in the 62 team women's section, followed by China, Hungary, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhistan and the United States.
As usual, the Olympics was an occasion of friendship and celebration. But a sad note was the absence of former world champion Mikhail Tal who had been expected to play on the Latvian team. Tal, who was reported to be gravely ill, died a few days after the competition was ended.
Below is a sharp tactical win from Manila by the emerging 17-year-old Russian star Vladimir Kramnik over Jean Costa of Switzerland.
