18 conclusions from the 2016 Baku Olympiad

The new-look USA team lived up to the hype to win the Chess Olympiad for the first time in 40 years, edging out Ukraine in a tiebreak cliff-hanger. All the big teams won as expected in the final round, giving Russia bronze and meaning India missed out this time round. In the women’s event it looked for a while as though Russia would beat China and win their 4th Olympiad gold in a row, but instead China turned the tables, giving Hou Yifan her first team gold medal as Poland took silver and Ukraine bronze. The Russian women didn't make the podium. We draw some conclusions from the event.

For the lowdown on the final round you can’t do better than watch Jan Gustafsson’s highlights video:

Sam Shankland holds the trophy as the US team pull off a historic triumph | photo: Maria Emelianova, Baku Chess Olympiad