Time to celebrate! For the first time in 40 years, Team USA took home the gold at the Chess Olympiad.

The 42nd Chess Olympiad – essentially the chess equivalent of the Olympics – was held in Baku, Azerbaijan this year, in the strongest and toughest field in the Olympiad’s 89-year history. The United States had its highest-rated team ever, headed by Wesley So, Hiraku Nakamura and Liberty Science Center Visiting Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana, the leading chess player in America.

Making their victory even more impressive is the fact that this year’s team is very young; Ray Robson is 21, So is 22, Caruana and Sam Shankland are 24 and Nakamura is 28.

Three of the five grandmasters on the US team rank within the top ten players in the world. Caruana is third, So is sixth and Nakamura is seventh.

Following USA, Ukraine took the silver and Russia took the bronze. There were 189 countries participating in the Chess Olympiad this year (the UN recognizes 194 countries in the world).

The last time USA took home the gold was at the 22nd Chess Olympiad in 1976, which was held in Haifa, Israel. That year, the Soviet Union had boycotted the Chess Olympiad, allowing an easier victory for Team USA. The Soviet Union had come in victorious the prior 12 years.

Caruana will be back on American soil and at Liberty Science Center on Thursday, September 22. That day, he will participate in the Play Magnus Challenge at LSC against world chess champion Magnus Carlsen. Learn more here.

Congratulations again to Team USA, for marking an exciting new chapter in chess history!