TheWomen's Chess Olympiad is an event held byFIDE (the InternationalChess Federation) since 1957 (every two years since 1972), where national women's teams compete at chess for gold, silver and bronze medals. Since 1976 the Women's Chess Olympiad has been incorporated withinChess Olympiad events, with simultaneous women's and open tournaments.
The trophy for the winning women's team is known as theVera Menchik Cup in honor of the firstWomen's World Chess Champion (1927–1944). TheSoviet Union has won it the most often: 11 times. Before the break-up of the Soviet Union, it has also been won byHungary led by threePolgár sisters (twice) andIsraeli team fully composed of Soviet-born players (once in1976 when it was boycotted by theEastern Bloc). In the post-Soviet era,China have won the event six times,Georgia – four times,Russia – three times,Ukraine – two times andIndia – once.
From 1957 to 1974 the Women's Olympiad was a separate event (with except of the 1972 event). Since 1976 it has been held in the same place and at the same time as theopen event.
This trophy was created byFIDE in 1997 and named afterNona Gaprindashvili, the former women's World Champion (1962–1978). The trophy is awarded to the team that has the best overall performance across the open and women's divisions.
The table contains the women's teams ranked by the medals won at the Chess Olympiad, not including the unofficial events, ranked by the number of first place medals, ties broken by second-place medals, etc.
The table contains teams ranked by total number of medals won at the Chess Olympiad (not including the online or unofficial events) in theOpen event (since 1927) and Women's event (since 1957), ranked by the number of first-place medals, ties broken by second-place medals, etc.
Only players participating in at leastfour Olympiads are included in this table.
Medals indicated in the order gold - silver - bronze. The statistics of individual medals includes only medals which are awarding to the top three individual players on each board. The medals for overallperformance rating (awarded in 1984–2006) are not included into this statistics, but are listed separately below the table.
Nona Gaprindashvili played eleven Olympiads for theSoviet Union, and one forGeorgia. She won another one individual gold medal and one individual bronze medal for overallperformance rating. In total she won 9 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze individual medals.
Pia Cramling won another one individual silver medal and one individual bronze medal for overallperformance rating. In total she won 3 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze individual medals.
Zsófia Polgár won another one individual gold medal for overallperformance rating. In total she won 3 gold and 1 bronze individual medals.
Wang Lei won another one individual gold medal for overallperformance rating. In total she won 2 individual gold medals.
Zsuzsa Polgár played three Olympiads forHungary, and one for theUnited States (as Susan Polgar). She won another one individual gold medal and two individual bronze medals for overallperformance rating. In total she won 2 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze individual medals.
Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant played her first Olympiad for theSoviet Union, then four forGeorgia and four forScotland. She won another one individual gold medal and one individual bronze medal for overallperformance rating. In total she won 3 gold and 2 bronze individual medals.
Alisa Galliamova played her first Olympiad for theSoviet Union, then one forUkraine (as Galliamova-Ivanchuk) and three forRussia. She won another two individual silver medals for overallperformance rating. In total she won 4 individual silver medals.
Zhao Xue won another two individual gold medals and one individual bronze medal for overallperformance rating. In total she won 5 gold and 1 bronze individual medals.
Maia Chiburdanidze played her first seven Olympiads for theSoviet Union, the rest forGeorgia. She won another one individual gold medal and three individual bronze medals for overallperformance rating. In total she won 5 gold, 2 silver and 6 bronze individual medals.
Hou Yifan won another one individual bronze medal for overallperformance rating. In total she won 1 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze individual medals.
Nana Ioseliani played her first two Olympiads for theSoviet Union, the rest forGeorgia. She won another one individual silver medal and one individual bronze medal for overallperformance rating. In total she won 2 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze individual medals.
Zhu Chen won another two individual gold medals for overallperformance rating. In total she won 4 gold and 1 silver individual medals.