[16] Former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov expressed support for the South African bid during his FIDE presidential campaign.

[19] The organisers of the tournament named several "Goodwill Ambassadors", including famous chess players like Nona Gaprindashvili, Maia Chiburdanidze, Judit Polgár, Viswanathan Anand, as well as other domestic personalities like operatic mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili, conductor and composer Nikoloz Rachveli and weightlifter Lasha Talakhadze.

The carrying of mobile phones, watches, and pens was not allowed inside the playing venue and players were required to release them in storage areas.

[31] The opening ceremony was held on 23 September in the Black Sea Arena under the name "CHESS Stories" coined by Georgian writer Aka Morchiladze and was broadcast live on 1TV, the official website of the event and the social media.

Then, video messages were presented by the Goodwill Ambassadors of the 43rd Chess Olympiad and speeches were delivered by the Minister of Education and Science of Georgia Mikheil Batiashvili, the Chairman of the Government of Adjara Tornike Rizhvadze, FIDE Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos and the President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili.

Among others who made appearance on the stage were famous Georgian singers Nino Katamadze, Liza Bagrationi and Giorgi Ushikishvili, baritone Lado Ataneli, violist Giorgi Tsagareli, the indie rock band Nika Kocharov & Young Georgian Lolitaz, the folklore ensemble Lashari and the Batumi cappella.

[7] The Netherlands Antilles, albeit a non-existing entity since 2010, are allowed to field teams under this name, because the Curaçao Chess Federation remains officially registered as representing the dissolved country in the FIDE Directory.

[39] The tournament featured nine out of the top ten players from the FIDE rating list published in September 2018 with only then-World Champion Magnus Carlsen being absent.

Former World Champion Vishwanathan Anand returned to the Chess Olympiads on board one for India following a break of twelve years.

The United States were playing with the same line-up that won the gold medal with Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So, Samuel Shankland and Ray Robson, whose average rating was 2772.

Russia as the second strongest team made changes in the line-up compared to the Baku Chess Olympiad, where Dmitry Jakovenko and Nikita Vitiugov replaced Alexander Grischuk and Evgeny Tomashevsky alongside Vladimir Kramnik, Sergey Karjakin and Ian Nepomniachtchi.

China had the third highest pre-tournament rating of 2756 and four players from Baku on the team, including Ding Liren, Li Chao, Wei Yi and Yu Yangyi, while Wang Yue was replaced by Bu Xiangzhi.

The same result was achieved by the United States and Russia, who had inferior tie-breakers and came up on the podium by winning the silver and bronze medal, respectively.

[47] Despite the slow start and implausible play, Russia finished the tournament with four consecutive victories to catch China and the United States, which was only enough for the third place because of the relatively weaker schedule.

[51] Jorge Cori of Peru, playing on board three, was the best individual player in the open event by scoring 7½ out of 8 points (seven wins and one draw) with a rating performance of 2925.

[10] The winners of the gold medal on each board are listed in turn:[52] The Women's event was contested by a record number of 151 teams, representing 146 nations.

[43] Former Women's World Champions Alexandra Kosteniuk, Anna Ushenina and Mariya Muzychuk were part of their national teams, while Antoaneta Stefanova did not play because of the controversy with the Bulgarian Chess Federation.

They were playing with Nana Dzagnidze on the top board, Lela Javakhishvili, Nino Batsiashvili, Bela Khotenashvili and Meri Arabidze.

Host nation Georgia finished solely in the third place and won the bronze medal with seven wins, three draws and one loss for a total of 17 match points.

[12] The mascot of the 43rd Chess Olympiad was a green turtle with a chessboard depicted on its shell that was wearing glasses and a tie with the colours from the tournament's official logo.

[66] The sponsors of the event included: SOCAR, Turkish Airlines,[67] Georgian Public Broadcasting,[68] Hytera, Gurieli[69] and Aqua Geo.

The timeline, among other things, included allegations of financial and administrative irregularities during the organisation of the 2013 European Youth Chess Championship in Budva, establishment of an imposter company in Delaware, the unlawful ban of Kiril Georgiev, Metodi Stoinev and Simeon Stoichkov, non-compliance of the BCF with the decisions made by the FIDE Ethics Commission and FIDE General Assembly in Baku, and refusal of the BCF to cooperate with the European Chess Union.

[42] On the other hand, some Bulgarian players switched to other federations and were allowed to participate at the event under different flags, most notably Ivan Cheparinov to Georgia, Kiril Georgiev to Macedonia (a country that he had previously represented at the 35th Chess Olympiad in 2002), and Boris Chatalbashev to Denmark.

United States Department of the Treasury accused Ilyumzhinov for materially assisting and acting for the Syrian government and the Central Bank of Syria, although no details were revealed about the nature of his involvement.

The sanctions came shortly before Ilyumzhinov's trip to the United States, where he was supposed to determine which city would host the World Chess Championship 2016.

[76] Later he went on to publicly deny his resignation and told the Russian news agency TASS that FIDE officials wanted to oust him and that it was "the hand of the Americans".

He also appealed to the chess federations and executive director Nigel Freeman to cancel the board meeting that he described as a waste of money.

[62] The letter published by FIDE Treasurer Adrian M. Siegel reported that the white-money strategy in Switzerland does not allow to do business with people on the sanction list of the United States Department of the Treasury.

Furthermore, it was revealed that the Presidential Board unanimously decided to take measures on mitigating the risk by transferring Ilyumzhinov's duties to FIDE Deputy President Makropoulos in December 2015.

[83][84] On 29 June 2018, FIDE's president Ilyumzhinov announced that he would withdraw his candidacy for the presidential election during the Batumi Chess Olympiad and expressed support for Russia's new candidate Arkady Dvorkovich.