Telechess Olympiads

TelexThe special telechess contests are conducted by conveying the moves via telex (also teleprinter), radio (amateur radio), telegraph or telephone. Each player operates a chess clock to record his time. The player is not charged with the time required for transmitting the moves. When applicable, the FIDE Rules of Play are valid in the matches. For transmission of the moves and the adjudication of the games, the ICCF Tournament Rules are valid when applicable. These contests are usually organized between teams of 6 to 10 players.

In 1976 a meeting took place between the Presidents of FIDE (Dr. Euwe) and ICCF (Hans-Werner von Massow) where it was agreed to start a Telechess Olympiad for country teams, which all had to include OTB and CC players.
What is telex?
A global teleprinter network, called the Telex network, was established in the 1920s, and was used through most of the 20th century for business communications. The main difference from a standard teleprinter is that telex includes a switched routing network, originally based on pulse-telephone dialing. Telex is still in use for certain applications such as shipping, news, weather reporting and military command. Most of business applications have moved to the Internet though.
National teams participated in three successive knockout tournaments, which were very enjoyable and enhanced co-operation between OTB and CC players and officials. They were discontinued in the early 1990's, mainly because of political re-alignments in Eastern Europe etc. and the emergence of other forms of new technologies, including the internet. The Telechess Olympiads were held in the KO-system, while teams consisted of 8 players. The pairing as well as colour distribution was determined by drawing of lots. In case of a draw, a very special board count was employed, favourizing teams winning more games on higher boards.

There is a selection of games available for each of three Olympiads, but details (and not full) are available only for the premier one.

/ Based on notes by Alan P. Borwell /

1st Telechess Olympiad 1977 / 78   Play games Download games

First round

  • 19th February 1977, West Germany-Netherlands 3½-4½
    (Hübner 0 Böhm; Hecht ½ Van Wijgerden; Mohrlok ½ Van der Vliet; Kestler ½ Enklaar; Wockenfuss 0 Scheeren; Klundt ½ Van der Sterren; Weichert 1 Belle; Schubert ½ Egmond)
  • 1977, Australia-Guyana 6½-1½
    (Jamieson 1 H.Broomes; Shaw ? Greeman; Woodhams ½ Barker; Rogers 1 Wharton; Sztern 1 Warsali; Prods ? Shahoud; Kellner 1 Massiah; Fardell ? G.Broomes)
  • 23rd April 1977, Poland-Finland 4-4
    (J.Adamski ½ Poutianen; Skrobek 0 Raaste; Sydor ½ Kanko; Bielczyk 1 Venäläinen; Filipowicz 0 Kivipelto; Pinkas 1 Saren; Dobosz ½ Ristoja; Pokojowczyk ½ Jou.Aijälä)
  • 30th April 1977, Iceland-England 4-4
    (F.Olafsson ½ Hartston; Sigurjonsson 1 Stean; Johansson ½ Nunn; Arnason ½ Mestel; Asmundsson 1 Whiteley; Arnason ½ Webb; Torsteindottir 0 Jackson; Petursson 0 Goodman)
  • 15th May 1977, Sweden-Norway 4½-3½
    (Jansson ½ Øgaard; Schüssler ½ Wibe; Eslon 1 Hoen; Hansson ½ Helmers; Rörvall ½ Gulbrandsen; Wedberg 0 Ulrichsen; Hammar ½ Kristiansen; Ahman 1 Trolldalen)
  • France-Portugal: France withdrew.
  • Soviet Union and East Germany received a bye.

Quaterfinals

  • 1977, Netherlands-Portugal 5-3
    (Böhm 0 F.Silva; Hartoch 1 Durao; Bouwmeester ½ Pereira; Van der Sterren 1 J.Santos; Van der Vliet 1 L.Santos; Van Baarle ½ Rego; Van Dop 1 A.Santos; Janssen 0 Sequeira)
  • 24th September 1977, Soviet Union-Australia 5½-2½
    (Tal ½ Jamieson; Gulko ½ Rogers; Vasiukov ½ Woodhams; Tseitlin ½ Shaw; Chekhov ½ Prods; Zagorovsky 1 Travers; Akhsharumova 1 Kellner; Kasparov 1 West)
  • 22nd October 1977, Sweden-East Germany 3-5
    (Andersson ½ Uhlmann; Ornstein ½ Malich; Jansson ½ Knaak; Wedberg 0 Vogt; Hansson ½ Espig; Niklasson 0 Bönsch; Dahlin ½ Worch; Bjork ½ Casper)
  • 4th September 1977, Iceland-Finland 4½-3½
    (F.Olafsson 0 Poutiainen; Sigurjonsson 1 Rantanen; Johansson ½ Pyhälä; Arnason ½ Raaste; H.Olafsson 1 Kanko; Asmundsson ½ Binham; Petursson ½ Kivipelto; Solmundarsson ½ Piuva)

Semifinals

  • 1978, Soviet Union beat Netherlands
    (Polugaevsky 1 Ree; Razuvaev 1 Bouwmeester; Mikhalchishin 1 Van Scheltinga; Yusupov 1 Van der Wiel (...))
  • 25th April 1978, East Germany beat Iceland
    (Uhlmann 1 F.Olafsson; Malich 0 Sigurjonsson; Knaak 1 Johannsson; Vogt 0 H.Olafsson; Bönsch ½ Angantysson; Liebert 0 Petursson (...))

Final

  • 2nd December 1978, Soviet Union-East Germany 5-3
    (Balashov ½ Malich; Vasiukov ½ Knaak (...))


See the most famous game from the Olympiad (junior board):
G.Kasparov (URS) - G.West (AUS) 1-0




2nd Telechess Olympiad 1981 / 82   Play games Download games

First round

  • Scotland-Norway 5-3
  • 20th September 1981, England-Israel 5-3
    (Nunn 1 Gruenfeld; Speelman ½ Birnboim; Keene ? Bernstein; Mestel 1 Murey; Hartston ? Greenfeld; P. Littlewood ? Zilber; Short ? Balshan; Bellin 1 Sterberg)
  • Finland-West Germany 4-4
  • (...)

Quarterfinals

  • 12th December 1981, Soviet Union-Scotland 6½-1½
    (Polugaevsky ½ Pritchett; Vasiukov 1 McKay; Kochiev 1 McNab; Palatnik 1 Upton; Lerner ½ Bryson; Zagarovsky 1 Morrison; Naumkin ½ Condie; Ioselani 1 Scott)
  • England-Iceland 4½-3½
    (Nunn ½ F.Olafsson; Stean ? H.Olafsson; Speelman ½ Arnason; Keene 1 Hjartarson; Mestel 0 Johansson; Taulbut ½ Gudmundsson; Plaskett ? Solmundarson; Davies 1 Thorsteinsson)
  • Sweden-Finland 5½-2½
  • East Germany-Poland 5½-2½

Semifinals

  • 3rd April 1982 Soviet Union-England 4½-3½
    (Balashov 0 Miles; Psakhis 1 Speelman; Yusupov ½ Keene; Tukmakov ½ Mestel; Romanishin 0 Chandler; Kupreichik 1 Short; Sveshnikov 1 P.Littlewood; Vasiukov ½ Taulbut)
  • East Germany-Sweden 4½-3½
    (Uhlmann 0 Karlsson; Knaak 1 Wedberg; Vogt ½ Schneider; Malich 1 D.Cramling; Espig ½ Ekström; Grünberg 1 Sjöberg; Broder 0 P.Cramling; Tischbierek ½ Akesson)

Final

  • 21 November 1982, Soviet Union-East Germany 4-4
    (Yusupov ½ Uhlmann; Balashov 1 Vogt; Tseshkovsky 0 Knaak; Kupreichik ½ Malich; Taimanov ½ Bönsch; Agzamov ½ Espig; Levitina ½ Burchardt; A.Sokolov ½ Tischbierek)




3rd Telechess Olympiad 1989 / 90   Play games Download games

First round

  • Ireland-Norway 8-0 (won by default)
  • Australia-Singapore 6½-1½
  • The remaining 6 teams received a bye: Soviet Union, East Germany, Austria, Finland, ...).

Quarterfinals

  • 15 November 1989, Australia-Ireland 7½-½
    (Rogers 1 Orr; Johansson 1 N.Carton; Solomon 1 Ryan; West 1 Hynes; Gedevanish 1 Clarke; Jamieson ½ Ludgate; Dekic 1 A.Delaney; Campbell 1 Buckley)
  • 16 December 1989, East Germany-Finland 6-2
    (Bönsch ½ Yrjöla; Grünberg ½ Pyhälä; Uhlmann 1 Valkesalmi; Vogt 1 Nokso-Koivisto; Espig 1 Kekki; Tischbierek 1 Sorri; Luther ½ Norri; Wagner ½ Koskela)
  • (...)

Semifinals

  • 23 June 1990, East Germany-Austria 6-2
    (Bönsch ½ Brestian; Knaak 1 Robatsch; Uhlmann ½ Wittmann; Grünberg ½ Dückstein; Espig 1 Schlosser; Tischbierek 1 Vodep; Rosenthal 1 Volkmann; Wagner ½ Horvath)
  • 22 September 1990, Australia-Soviet Union 8-0 (won by default)
    Soviet Union claimed a 6-2 victory on the board but were subsequently disqualified after an Australian protest that the Soviet Union had not fielded the team declared beforehand, some of their boards had played to the wrong time-limit and that their telex link had broken at a crucial time.

Final

  • 23rd September 1990, East Germany-Soviet Union 4-4
    (Bönsch ½ Khalifman; Knaak 1 Vyzhmanavin; Uhlmann ½ Dvoirys; Espig ½ Glek; Grünberg ½ Yakovich; Tischbierek ½ Nesis; Wagner ½ Chelushkina; Rosenthal 0 Belikov)
    East Germany had played the Soviet Union on the day after the Australia-Soviet Union semifinal - and had won on board count after a 4-4 result. By the time the Soviet Union were disqualified by FIDE, East Germany no longer existed and Australia were declared the winners.