45th Chess Olympiad: When was the last time Hungary hosted the event?

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The 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad 2024 is all set to be hosted in Budapest, Hungary. The last time Hungary hosted the Olympiad was way back in 1926. However, it was named as the unofficial Chess Olympiad, part of the FIDE summit.

In 1926, FIDE hosted the second unofficial Chess Olympiad, a team chess tournament, in Budapest, Hungary from June 26 to July 15. Though six teams applied to take part in the team tournament, Australia and Czechoslovakia pulled out before the start of the campaign.

Hungary went on to win the team tournament ahead of Romania, Germany and Yugoslavia. Furthermore, individual events, mixed competition and women's competition also took place during the second unofficial Olympiad.

Austria's Ernst Grunfeld and Italy's Maruo Monticelli bagged the strongest individual event, referred to as the first "FIDE Masters". In the mixed local and international players event, Czechoslovakia's Max Walter bagged the title.

In the women's tournament, UK's Edith Holloway secured the championship while Sandor Zinner bagged the open tournament title contested by the local Hungary players.

45th Chess Olympiad - All you need to know

Notably, the Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from various nations of the world compete against each other for the title. The 45th edition will be hosted from September 10 to 23, 2024.

Interestingly, this will be the first official Chess Olympiad to take place in Hungary since Budapest hosted the unofficial Chess Olympiad in 1926.

The 45th Chess Olympiad will take place at BOK Hall in Budapest. The venue will be the center of attraction for events, accreditation center, expo and fan zone area.

The competition will be played in an 11-round team Swiss in classical time control. Teams assign their players to boards one, two, three and four. Matches consist of players from each board of one nation playing against the corresponding board of the opponent nation.