Russian Valentina Gunina, playing on board two, was the best individual player in the Women's event with 8 out of 10 points (seven wins, two draws and one loss), with a performance rating of 2643.

In his speech during the congress, Azerbaijani Minister of Youth and Sports Azad Rahimov said that Armenian sportsmen had already visited Azerbaijan and participated in competitions, where they were provided with security guarantees that had been met, and no incident was ever recorded.

The next speaker was FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who suggested that the 42nd Chess Olympiad should take place in Baku and mentioned that there are four years for the Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict to be resolved before the event.

Its shape and façade are response to Azerbaijan's special request for the creation of a widely visible and visually effective landmark as a bridge between Asia and Europe that will be noticed in an international context.

The next to speak was FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhnov, who welcomed all participants from the record-number of countries and extolled the great preparatory work of the organising committee.

It was assisted by Vladimir Kramnik and Hou Yifan as the highest-rated players of the highest-ranked teams in the open and women's event, respectively, who joined the Chief Arbiter Faiq Hasanov for the drawing of colours.

They include the triple champions (2006, 2008 and 2012) in the open event Armenia as well as Bhutan, Burundi, Cambodia, Comoros, Gabon, Laos, Nauru, Solomon Islands and East Timor.

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

[40][41] The tournament featured eight out of the top ten players from the FIDE rating list published in August 2016; only former World Champion Viswanathan Anand and Levon Aronian were missing the Olympiad.

The United States were the second strongest team with three top ten players, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So, along with Samuel Shankland and Ray Robson.

Norway, led by the world champion Magnus Carlsen, ended the tournament in fifth place, which is their best result ever at the Chess Olympiads; they had only finished in the top 20 on one previous occasion.

[9][46] Andrei Volokitin of Ukraine, playing as a reserve player, won the individual gold medal overall, scoring 81⁄2 out of 9 (eight wins and a draw) with a rating performance of 2992.

[9] However, the best point scorer in the Open section was 64-year old Eugenio Torre who played in his record 23rd Olympiad, and scored 10 out of 11 with a rating performance of 2836 and the bronze medal on board three.

Peter Svidler called his achievement "frankly beyond belief" and said of him: I wanted to speak a little about people who impressed the most, and somehow I kept on ignoring his performances in my previous two banters during this Olympiad, which is ridiculous, but I think pride of place goes to Eugenio Torre.

They were led by the Women's World Champion Hou Yifan on board one, along with Zhao Xue, Ju Wenjun, Tan Zhongyi and Guo Qi.

Georgia were led by the best individual player in the women's event of the Chess Olympiad in Tromsø in 2014 Nana Dzagnidze, and also had Lela Javakhishvili, Nino Batsiashvili, Bela Khotenashvili and Salome Melia on the team.

[9] Valentina Gunina of Russia, playing on board two, won the individual gold medal overall with a score of 8 out of 10 (seven wins, one loss and two draws) and a rating performance of 2643.

The author of the mascot is Musa Changiev, whose suggestion was selected out of 600 received in the national competition launched by the Baku Chess Olympiad Operating Committee in March 2016.

[76] The captain of the Japanese team GM Mihajlo Stojanović later addressed some of the related issues in comments on the blog of the Macedonian grandmaster and general secretary of the Association of Chess Professionals Aleksandar Čolooviḱ.

[72] During the game of the seventh round between Nigel Short and Li Chao, the former was returning from the toilet with about 30 minutes to make 20 moves when an anti-cheating arbiter asked him to undergo a spot check with a hand scanner for electronic devices.

[78] Short discussed the incident extensively after the event, indicating that he did not think the cost of annoyance to the player (even when returning from outside the playing area) was comparable to the anti-cheating benefit, though he was not pressed specifically regarding cases where a culprit had in fact been disqualified following mid-game requests for inspection (some for refusal, others for being caught with a device).

[77] Alternative initial reports dramatised the event to have the arbiters "ask[ing] him to step away from the board and subject himself to a full search" while in time trouble and playing a "do-or-die" position, though these details now seem discredited.

[76] Multiple post-event comments by captains and players continued to report the annoyance of the anti-cheating measures, noting that a better balance between security and enjoyment could be found by FIDE.

[72][84][85] Baadur Jobava was prominent on the other side of the issue, opining that the anti-cheating measures would help solve the non-stop screaming about this great "headache" for the 21st century chess player.

This issue was briefly raised during the 83rd FIDE Congress, and Azad Rahimov noted the country had a positive experience with the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, where all participants could receive a visa on arrival at the airport without any problem.

[88] A number of African nations did not show up in time, for various reasons such as difficulties flying through Istanbul, and finalisation of monetary arrangements (teams must pay first, and then get reimbursed later).

For example, the candidates tournament for the World Chess Championship 2012 was ultimately moved (completely) from Baku to Kazan, with consideration given that one underlying reason was because Armenia's Levon Aronian was inhospitable toward playing in Azerbaijan.

[90][91] Nevertheless, Armenian players, including Levon Aronian, did play at the 2015 Chess World Cup in Baku, giving some hope the team would appear at the Olympiad.

[44] Bulgaria played without Ivan Cheparinov and Kiril Georgiev, the former due to monetary disputes,[97] and the latter because the Bulgarian Chess Federation considered him banned.

[100] One week before the Olympiad started, the Pakistani Sports Board, dealing with three separate claimants to status of official national federation, refused to issue "No Objection Certificates" (NOCs).