In 1939, the 8th Chess Olympiad ended in Buenos Aires. It wasn't until 11 years later that there was another chess olympiad.
In 1948, Yugoslavia submitted a proposal to the FIDE congress in Saltsjobaden, Sweden to host the 9th Chess Olympiad.
In 1949, FIDE confirmed to have the 9th Chess Olympiad in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia (now Croatia since 1991). The Soviet delegation opposed Yugoslavia from hosting the chess olympiad. USSR and its satellite East Eurupean communist countries, such as Hungary and Czechoslovakia, decided to boycott the event.
The chess olympiad was organized by the State and supported by Marshall Josep Tito (1892-1980). Dubrovnik (called Ragusa until 1929) was an old city on the Dalmation coast in the Adriatic Sea. Chess was first documented in Dubrovnik in 1422.
Yugoslavia designed a special variant of the Staunton chess set pattern for this chess olympiad.
In 1950, FIDE published its first list of grandmasters. The grandmasters that particpated included Euwe, Reshevsky, Najdorf, and Tartakower.
The games began on August 20, 1950, during a heat wave. There were 16 teams. England did not particpate because they were hosting their English chess championship at the same time. The event ended on September 10, 1950.
On August 20, 1950, Yugoslavia issued five stamps (2, 3, 5, 10, 20 and dinars) to commemorate the 9th Chess Olympiad. One of the stamps (the 5 dinar stamp) incorrectly shows a position from the Capablanca-Lasker, New York 1924 game. Lasker's bishop should be on the g8 square, not the f8 square. The stamps were printed by Courvoiser of Switzerland.
A new FIDE regulation allowed each team to have two reserves.
The French team included Chantel Chaude de Silans (1919-2004), the first woman to appear at the Chess Olympiads.
USA was the only team that went undefeated, yet did not win a medal.
Thirteen matches went 4-0.
Helle of Finland scored 9 draws in 10 games.
The Greek team was the sole newcomer to this chess olympiad.
During the event, President Tito sent two aircraft to Dubrovnik for all the team members to fly them back to Tito's palace for a reception. Larry Evans remembers the palace because he stuffed his pockets with toilet paper. It was the only place in Yugoslavia where it was soft and not like sandpaper.
The winners were Yugoslavia (gold) with 45.5 points, Argentina (silver) with 43.5 points, and West Germany (bronze) with 40.5 points. The rest of the teams were USA (40), Holland (37), Belgium (32), Austria (31.5), Chile (30.5), France (28.5), Finland (28), Sweden (27.5), Italy (25), Denmark (22), Peru (21.5), Norway (15), and Greece (12).
Yugoslavia won the first and only championship on home soil. The team members were Gligoric, Pirc, Trifunovic, Rabar, Vidmar Jr, and Puc.
Individual medals went to the following:
1st Board - Unzicker and Najdorf (gold), Reshevsky (bronze). 2nd Board - Julio Bolbochain (gold), Lothar Schmid and Rossolimo (silver) 3rd Board - Trifunovic (gold), Prins (silver), Pfeiffer (bronze) 4th Board - Rabar (gold), Cortlever (silver), Bergkvist and Rossetto (bronze) 1st Reserve Board - Pilnik (gold), Lambert (silver), Kramer and Staudte (bronze) 2nd Reserve Board - Evans (gold), Donner (silver)Larry Evans and Braslav Rabar topped the individual results with a 90% score.