The 34th Chess Olympiad, organized by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs and comprising an open and women's tournament, took place between October 28 and November 12, 2000, in Istanbul, Turkey. There were 126 teams in the open event and 86 in the women's event. Both tournament sections were officiated by international arbiterGeurt Gijssen. Teams were paired across the 14 rounds of competition according to the Swiss system. The open division was played over four boards per round, whilst the women's was played over three. In the event of a draw, the tie-break was decided first by the Buchholz system and secondly by match points. The time control for each game permitted each player 100 minutes to make the first 40 of his or her moves, then an additional 50 minutes to make the next 20 moves, and then 10 minutes to finish the game, with an additional 30 seconds devolving on each player after each move, beginning with the first. In addition to the overall medal winners, the teams were divided into seeding groups, with the top finishers in each group receiving special prizes.
Open event
The open division was contested by 126 teams representing 124 nations. Turkey, as hosts, fielded two teams, whilst the International Braille Chess Association provided one squad. Nicaragua, Mauritania, and Djibouti were signed up but never arrived. Once again, Russia had to do without their strongest players, the "Three Ks". Classical World Champion Garry Kasparov and challenger Vladimir Kramnik were in the midst of their championship match, and ex-champion Anatoly Karpov was still at odds with the national federation. Captained by the new FIDE champion Khalifman, however, Russia were still favourites, and the team did win their fifth consecutive title, although only by a single point. Germany took the silver medals, while Ukraine clinched the bronze, beating Hungary on tie-break. Pre-tournament medal favourites England, whose average rating was a mere 13 points below Russia's, finished a disappointing seventh.
The women's division was contested by 86 teams representing 84 nations. Turkey, as hosts, fielded two teams, whilst the InternationalBraille Chess Association entered one squad. Defending champions China were huge favourites on rating and retained their title, led by reigning world championXie Jun and with two future champions in the team: Zhu Chen and Xu Yuhua. Georgia and Russia took the silver and bronze medals, respectively.
The Nona GaprindashviliTrophy is awarded to the nation that has the best average rank in the open and women's divisions. Where two or more teams are tied, they are ordered by best single finish in either division and then by total number of points scored. The trophy, named after the former women's world champion, was created by FIDE in 1997.
