Is It Worth Playing Risky Chess?
The official history of the 1st Chess Olympiad in London in 1927 is well known. Hungary won gold, Denmark silver, and England bronze. The final standings clearly showed who was the most effective. But does it tell us everything about the style, courage, and determination of the individual teams? Is there a story of uncompromising battle to the very last move hidden behind the dry numbers?
The Level of Risky Play
At Olympchess.com, we decided to examine the data from London from an entirely new angle, creating a statistic: "Risk Factor".
What is the Risk Factor and how did we calculate it?
The "Risk Factor" is an indicator that we calculated specifically for this analysis. It measures the percentage of a given team's games that ended decisively (with a victory or a defeat), ignoring draws. The higher the factor, the more uncompromising and risky the playing style displayed by the team.
Methodology:
- Data: We used the complete individual results of all 70 players, available in our book "The Great Book of Chess Olympiads: London 1927".
- Calculations: For each of the 16 teams, we totaled the number of victories and defeats across all 60 games played (15 rounds x 4 boards).
- Formula: Risk Factor = (Number of Victories + Number of Defeats) / 60
Ranking of uncompromising play: London 1927
The table below presents the teams ranked from the most pragmatic (lowest factor) to the most uncompromising (highest factor).
Risk Factor – data calculated on the basis of detailed individual results from the 1st Chess Olympiad in London. The higher the risk factor, the more games ended decisively
What do the numbers tell us? An analysis of playing styles
- The pragmatism of the champions: Surprising? The gold medalists, Hungary, had the lowest factor in the entire tournament (63.3%). This shows that their strategy was based on remarkable efficiency: they won the crucial games and, in difficult matches, were able to draw solidly. Their leader, Géza Maróczy, did not lose a single game, recording 6 victories and 6 draws.
- English solidity: The bronze medalists, England, also rank among the top teams that avoided risk (65.0%). Their strength was extraordinary solidity, symbolized by George Alan Thomas – winner of the prize for the best individual result, who did not lose a single one of his 15 games (+9 =6 -0).
- Silver forged in the heat of battle: Standing out among the pragmatic medalists is Denmark (71.7%). The silver medalists played boldly and offensively, which earned them as many as 30 victories but also 13 defeats. Their leader was Holger Norman-Hansen, who with 11 victories became the tournament's record holder.
- Drama at the bottom of the table: The highest "Risk Factors" belong to the teams at the bottom of the standings – Spain (76.7%) and Belgium (75.0%). These teams played "va banque," which unfortunately resulted in the highest number of defeats in the tournament (36 and 30, respectively). Their matches were full of drama, but they lacked the strength to tip the scales in their favor.