Georgia wins gold and silver at World Chess Olympiad

Two Georgian chess players have won gold and silver medals at the 42nd World Chess Olympiad, featuring competitors from more than 180 countries.

The global chess competition launched in Azerbaijan's capital Baku on September 1 and concluded earlier today. Georgia is now preparing to host the next tournament in 2018.

The tournament featured and Open section and a separate Women’s category and awarded overall wins to teams and individual players.

Team Georgia finished 24th out of 150 teams in the Open section, but achieved an even better result in the Women's rankings, where the team placed 10th among 140 nations.

At the end of the tournament the Olympiad flag was handed over to Georgia as hosts of the next competition in 2018. Photo Maria Emelianova.

The primary success for Georgia came via an individual player competing in the Olympiad.  Baadur Jobava claimed eight points from his 10 matches, taking home the gold medal in the Men's Open section.

In addition, Georgian player Nino Batsiashvili recorded nine wins against 10 opponents and collected the silver medal in the Women's category behind China's gold medal winner Tan Zhongyi.

At the end of the World Chess Olympiad Georgia was mentioned at a special ceremony where the hosts in Azerbaijan handed over a symbolic flag of the tournament to the Georgian side, recognising them as host country of the next competition in two years' time.

The flag was handed to Georgia’s Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Tariel Khechikashvili, who is leading Georgia's preparations for the 2018 Olympiad in the Black Sea city Batumi.

See details and results of the 42nd World Chess Olympiad here.