"The organizers of this Olympiad have set the new standard for major chess events. Today we close this brilliant holiday, but we are confident that thousands of new boys and girls will begin to play chess and to discover the secrets of the smartest game of the planet tomorrow. And we, in our turn, will have the opportunity to come here, to the hospitable Azerbaijani land, to be the witnesses of chess battles of other tournaments," said the head of FIDE.
"I want to express my hearty gratitude to my great friend - the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev; Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games Yaqub Eyyubov, Minister of Youth and Sports Azad Rahimov, President of the National Chess Federation Elman Rustamov and Vice President Mair Mamedov for their support and devotion to the royal game of chess. I would like to specially thank the sponsors, media representatives, volunteers and all those, who made a contribution to the organization and holding of this chess festival," summed up Ilyumzhinov. Later, a video clip dedicated to Batumi, where the 43th World Chess Olympiad will be held in 2018, was shown. The ceremony ended with the performances of the Georgian music group Kaxaberi and Xanums together with the Honoured Artist of Azerbaijan Sevda Alakbarzadeh.
Let us remind that 181 men’s and 142 women's teams from 175 countries fought in that prestigious competition. This is a record number of participating countries in the Olympic history. The US men's team, which accumulated 20 points, won the title of Winner in Baku. The Ukrainian team with the same number of points came second. The Russian national team with 17 points won a bronze medal.