A look back at the historic 2004 Calvia Chess Olympiad

Susan Polgar: The secrets for winning Olympiad medals in chess competition

The question of the week was were there difficult moments for me or for the women’s team in the historic 2004 Chess Olympiad when the U.S. captured its first-ever medals?

Yes, there were a number of very tense situations along the way. This was the first time that I competed in the Olympiad without either of my sisters, but I was in good company with two key teammates IM Irina Krush, and IM Anna Zatonskih as starters. Everyone contributed to make this historic feat happen.

I was rusty early on but I made a big surge in the second half. I am also very happy that I kept some very important personal records intact. I played all 14 games on board one without a day off in all of my Olympiads. I have never lost a game in the Olympiad and I scored seven wins and seven draws in this one.

I have won at least two medals (team and individual) in all of my Olympiads. I won four here, including: Gold (Best overall individual performance [2622] in the entire Women’s Olympiad), Gold (Most points scored in the entire Women’s Olympiad with 10 points) and Silver (Second best percentage on board one with 75 percent).

This was very rewarding for me since I have not competed in the international circuit for nearly nine years. My last international game was the final game in the 1996 World Championship.

Very few people believed that I could still play top level chess. Some journalists even voiced their doubts publicly before the Olympiad. Others suggested changing the rules so I would not be able to compete for the U.S. in future Olympiads. All this made our accomplishment extra sweet.

In the end, the difference between winning the silver, or missing out in the medal race completely came down to some gutsy decisions made by the Team Captain Paul Truong (who is now director of marketing and PR for SPICE and assistant coach for the Webster University chess teams) during critical moments. His strategy helped us become the first team to defeat China in this Olympiad. They had a perfect 9-0 score and had been unstoppable up to that point. Furthermore, we had two blacks out of the three boards against China, which is a huge disadvantage.

His strategy was to even out the odd. He instructed IM Zatonskih and me to offer early draws with the black pieces. It was like a poker game. He knew that they would accept a draw on board one, but not on board three, since their board three was in contention for an individual gold medal. But he wanted them to think that we would be content with a tie. We were not!

In the meantime, his gut instinct was that IM Krush could beat the reigning world cup champion GM Xu Yuhua with the white pieces, as Irina had beat the same opponent two years ago at the Bled Olympiad.

It was a bold decision and he was absolutely correct. My opponent Xie Jun accepted an early draw, but GM Zhao Xue of China rejected the offer on board three and she spent nearly 25 minutes making this decision. This was crucial because in this fast time control, it helped our player to be way ahead on time. In the end, we held them off on board three and Irina won on board two to give us a match win by the score of 2–1.

Another prominent moment was his call in the last round against Vietnam. Russia was tied with us, Georgia was only half a point behind, and the French were only half a point behind Georgia.

The tough Vietnamese team wanted to hold us to a tie. They made draw offers in good positions. But his decisive and firm public rejections helped break down my opponent’s resolve. Most captains would have chosen the safe path by taking the draw but his gut instinct was once again correct. Even with me in a difficult position on the board, he believed that my opponent would misplay it and she eventually did.

There were a total of 14 rounds and the U.S. team faced the toughest schedules. Our round-by-round opponents were:

Round 1: Venezuela (Won 2.5-0.5)

Round 2: Lithuania (Won 2.5-0.5)

Round 3: Slovenia (Won 2.5-0.5)

Round 4: Russia (Lost 1-2)

Round 5: Sweden (Tied 1.5-1.5)

Round 6: Georgia (Won 2-1)

Round 7: India (Tied 1.5-1.5)

Round 8: Armenia (Won 2-1)

Round 9: Poland (Won 2-1)

Round 10: China (Won 2-1)

Round 11: Slovakia (Won 2-1)

Round 12: Hungary (Won 2.5-0.5)

Round 13: France (Tied 1.5-1.5)

Round 14: Vietnam (Won 2.5-0.5)

The next question is: What does it take to win a team Olympiad medal?

Blood, sweat and tears! Plus teamwork, a strong captain, and very good coaches.

The first step is to take the Olympiad seriously. You must train hard for it and have a goal. Then you need to have a captain who is dedicated and fearless, a captain who is willing to make tough decisions and not political or popular decisions, and one who is a good strategist and has a deep understanding of chess psychology. And, last but not least, a coach who knows the players, their strengths and weaknesses, and can help the players in these areas. We had this in the recent Olympiad and, by the way, it does not hurt to have some luck once in a while.

How does it feel to return to chess after an eight-plus-year layoff and to have such magnificent results at the Olympiad?

It felt fine, actually. I have been performing at a 2600 level since I began playing chess again in 2003. My match against former World Champion Anatoly Karpov shortly before the Olympiad helped somewhat and I also played some training games against friends.

It is hard for me to assess my results at the 2004 Olympiad. Personally, I felt that I could have done better. I missed some chances for a few additional wins because of the time control. Conversely, after such a slow start, I don’t think anyone beside our team captain and I could have expected the final performance. I guess things evened out in the end.

How does this Olympiad compare to others that you have played in?

I would say that this Olympiad is second only to the 1988 Olympiad, where my sisters and I made history by ending the dominance of the Soviet Women’s Team to capture the Gold medals.

The Soviet women won every Olympiad they played in up to that time. No one could have imagined that a group of young teenagers (I was 19, Sofia 14, Judit 12, and our teammate Madl 19) could dethrone the invincible Soviets. But my sisters and I believed in each other and we changed chess in Hungary forever.

The 2004 Olympiad was also very special because we made history as a team.

The core of the team came together in March 2003 and we had a very dedicated and tough captain, along with an extremely good head coach and a very experienced chief theoretician. That is why we were able to make history by capturing the first Olympiad medals for the United States.

In the past, a team was thrown together at the deadline without much preparation. How can you win this way? This team had goals and direction.

I am also happy that I was able to capture the first ever gold medal for the United States. Imagine that! The U.S. had never won a single medal until this Olympiad. That was quite special.

Source: http://lubbockonline.com