The World Chess Federation brought the 1974 Chess Olympiad to the south of France in 1974. Except the South Africans and the Rhodesians were kicked out, the Tunisians refused to play the Israelis and the big Soviet chess master stayed home because he might defect and the American chess master wanted more money. Well who doesn’t. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
An interesting thing happened in 1976 at the next Olympiad in Haifa, Israel. Arab teams refused to attend and set up a rival “Against Chess Olympiad” in Tripoli, Libya. Of course Libya put out a whole issue of stamps. They look a lot like todays 1974 stamp. That must mean that the French stamp design itself wasn’t controversial, and I can see why. It is a well drawn and well printed stamp. French stamp design excelled in the 1970s.
Todays stamp is issue A655, a one Franc stamp issued by France on June 8th, 1974. It was a single stamp issue celebrating the 21st official Chess Olympiad held that year in Nice, France. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents used.
FIDE a French acronym for the World Chess Federation, was founded in 1925 in Paris. Countries send 4 player teams that play a tournament of round robin play for points with the high three teams getting gold, silver, and bronze medals and the top individual player named world champion. There was a gap during World War II but since 1950 there has been a Chess Olympiad every two years. The Chess Olympiad is not associated with the Olympics.
The 21st Olympiad was held in Nice in 1974 and the Soviet Union took the Gold medal, Yugoslavia the Silver and the USA the Bronze. The Soviets had lost several of their top players to defections but still managed the Gold. The American Bobby Fischer, the first non Soviet champion in 20 years was still reigning champion but refused to attend. He wanted an event with more prize money and wanted to change the rules on matches that end in a draw. He thought the Soviet strategy of getting an early point lead and then playing for draws disadvantaged him. His lack of presence definitely disadvantaged the Nice games and put a shadow over future Soviet champions as he remained out there, not playing, but claiming to be champion.
There were many other controversies with smaller teams. Arab nations refused to play South Africa and Rhodesia over racial politics. At first FIDE tried to get around it by using a statistical model to game how games might have gone. This was also controversial and first South Africa and then Rhodesia were forced to leave the tournament. Rhodesia had already played all of its matches. The Nicaraguan team showed up late and with only 2 players and was forced to withdraw. The Tunisia team refused to play the Israeli team and the statistical model was used to predict an Israeli victory.
FIDE is now based in Athens, Greece and the Chess Olympiad still happens every two years. The event occurred this year in Batumi in the Republic of Georgia. China took the Gold Medal, Russia is not as dominant as the Soviets used to be. Norwegian Mangus Carlson is the current world champion individual.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the players that plow through all the politics to play the game. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.