The erstwhile Soviet Union were the undisputed king of world chess till the bloc broke up in the late 1980s. But countries like Ukraine and Armenia - which were parts of the Soviet bloc - had a rich chess tradition and it showed in their results in Olympiads. While Ukraine won the gold in 2004, Armenia ran away with the title in the open category thrice (2006, 2008, 2012).
While Uzbekistan, too, won a silver in 1992, it's Azerbaijan - where the legendary Garry Kasparov was born -don't have a medal yet at the Olympiad. Azerbaijan, the sixth seeds, want to change that around and for that to happen, their top-ranked player Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Elo 2759) has to play out of his skin. They finished 15th in the last Olympiad at Batumi in 2018. In that last over-the-board edition in Georgia, only one team was undefeated in the men's section - Germany. They had finished 13th with five wins and six draws.
