Chess Olympiad: Celebrating The Winners

In the evening of the final round, the closing ceremony of the Batumi Olympiad was held in the Batumi State Musical Center. Here's a pictorial report.

With the winning teams rightly placed in the first rows, the Olympiad's closing ceremony started with a traditional Georgian dance performance. After a video presentation and some brief speeches, the first medals were awarded and then performances and awards followed each other.

Like the opening ceremony, the closing was well received by the audience. Below are the pictorial highlights of the evening, which lasted about 2.5 hours and was the culmination of the 43rd Olympiad.

Dvorkovich met with the Russian teams shortly before the start. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

The Chinese women's team with Zhu Chen and Maia Chiburdanidze. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Left-right: Zurab Azmaiparashvili, Mahir Mamedov, Arkady Dvorkovich, Bachar Kouatly, Georgios Makropoulos. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Former rivals Dvorkovich and Makropoulos chatting. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Spectators standing up for one of the anthems. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Traditional Georgian dancing at the start. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

The hall as seen from the back. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Singer/artist and chess lover Juga singing Oh Capablanca. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Poland just missed out on a medal, but as a small consolance, they did win the category A prize. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Egypt, the winner of the category B prize, partly thanks to Bassem Amin (second from the right) who scored an undefeated 8/11 on board one. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Ecuador, the winner of the category C prize, taking a selfie on stage! | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Afghanistan, the winner of the category D prize. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

South Sudan, the winner of the category E prize. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Russia finished fourth in the women's tournament and won the category A prize. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Uzbekistan, the winner of the category B prize. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Kyrgyzstan, the winner of the category C prize. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

El Salvador, the winner of the category D prize. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Kosovo, the winner of the category E prize. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Board five, bronze medals: Christian Bauer (France) and Jennifer Yu (USA). | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Board five, silver medals: Olga Girya (Russia) and Ilya Smirin (Israel). | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Board five, gold medals: Alshaeby Boshra (Jordan) and Anton Korobov (Ukraine). | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Board four, bronze medals: Rauf Mamedov (Azerbaijan) and Bela Khotenashvili (Georgia). | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Board four, silver medals: Lei Tingjie and Bu Xiangzhi (both China). | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Board four, gold medals: Marina Brunello (Italy) and Daniel Fridman (Germany). | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Board three, bronze medals: Kacper Piorun (Poland) and Ana Matnadze (Spain). | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Board three, silver medals: Huang Qian and Vladimir Kramnik (Russia). | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Board three, gold medals: Khanim Balajayeva (Azerbaijan) and Jorge Cori (Peru). | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Board two, bronze medals: Aleksandra Goryachkina (Russia) and Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan). | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Board two, silver medals: Irina Krush and Ian Nepomniachtchi. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Board two, gold medals: Mariya Muzychuk (Ukraine) and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (Vietnam). | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Ding Liren needed help to get on stage for his gold medal. He would need to hobble on there two more times. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

The individual stars of the Olympiad, with gold medals for board one: Ding Liren and Ju Wenjun of China. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Board one, bronze medals (right): Anish Giri (Netherlands) and Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia), silver medals (left): Hoang Thanh Trang (Hungary) and Fabiano Caruana. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Getting off the stage was even harder for Ding! | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Best individual performances: Ju Wenjun (China) and Jorge Cori (Peru). | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Team bronze in the women's section: Georgia 1. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Silver for Ukraine, in good spirits again after they lost the battle for gold so narrowly. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Gold in the women's section: China. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Since 1998, the country with the highest combined score receives the Nona Gaprindashvili Cup. This year it was, of course, China. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Bronze: Russia. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Silver: USA. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Gold: China. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

The winning teams together. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

And a final, traditional dance to close the closing. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Traditionally, the Olympiad ends with the FIDE flag being handed over to the organizer of the next. The 44th edition will be in two years from now in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. Vassily Filipenko, the mayor of Khanty-Mansiysk and the President of the Ugra Chess Federation, was given the flag by Arkady Dvorkovich. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Earlier reports:

• Chess Olympiad Lineups Announced; Russian Streak Ends
• Chess Olympiad Starts With Spectacular Ceremony
• Chess Olympiad: 7 Minutes Of Tension In 1st Round
• Chess Olympiad Sparked By Marriage Proposal On Day 2
• Chess Olympiad: Wesley So Paces Team USA
• Chess Olympiad: Poland Beats Russia, Kramnik Gets Checkmated
• Chess Olympiad: Czechia Beats China, Poland Rolls On In Round 5
• Chess Olympiad: Azerbaijan, Poland Still Perfect
• Chess Olympiad: U.S. Joins Poland, Azerbaijan In Lead
• Chess Olympiad: U.S. Grabs Sole Lead In Round 8
• Chess Olympiad: Poland Continues Remarkable Run, Beats USA
• Chess Olympiad: China Ends Polish Run, Plays U.S. For Gold
• Chess Olympiad: China Wins Double Gold