Editing Chess Olympiad (section)

==Competition==
Each [[FIDE#Member federations|FIDE-recognized chess association]] can enter a team into the Olympiad.<ref name="Brace" /> Each team is made of up to five players, four regular players and one reserve (prior to the tournament in Dresden 2008 there were two reserves<ref>[http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/3005-fide-submitts-regulation-changes-for-chess-olympiad FIDE submits regulation changes for Chess Olympiad] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081205062607/http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/3005-fide-submitts-regulation-changes-for-chess-olympiad |date=5 December 2008 }} Fide.com</ref>).<ref name="Brace" />

Initially each team played all other teams but as the event grew over the years this became impossible.<ref name="Brace" />  At first team seeding took place before the competition,<ref name="Brace" /> with teams playing in preliminary groups and then finals. Later certain drawbacks were recognized with seeding and in 1976 a [[Swiss system tournament|Swiss tournament system]] was adopted.<ref name="Brace" /> Starting from 2008, the first criterion for determining ranking has been match points instead of board points. Teams score 2 points for a match win, 1 point for a drawn match and 0 points for a match loss.

The trophy for the winning team in the open section is the Hamilton-Russell Cup,<ref name="Brace" /> which was offered by the English magnate Frederick Hamilton-Russell as a prize for the [[1st Chess Olympiad|1st Olympiad]] (London 1927). The cup is kept by the winning team until the next event, when it is consigned to the next winner. 

There is a separate [[Women's Chess Olympiad|women's competition]]. Since 1976 it has been held at the same time and venue as the open event, with the two competitions comprising the Chess Olympiad. The trophy for the winning women's team is known as the [[Vera Menchik]] Cup in honor of the first [[Women's World Chess Championship|Women's World Chess Champion]]. [[Judit Polgár]] from Hungary is the only player who won Chess Olympiad medals in both competitions – two gold medals in the women's event ([[28th Chess Olympiad|1988]], [[29th Chess Olympiad|1990]]) and two silver medals in the open event ([[35th Chess Olympiad|2002]], [[41st Chess Olympiad|2014]]).