The very first European Team Championship was held in Vienna and Baden, a well-known spa nearby. 11 teams were registered for preliminaries and of those top four qualified. Hungary were missing (allegedly because they were not invited to take part in the preliminaries) which was a sort of sensation. Apart from them all European top teams arrived. USSR were 100% favourites although Botvinnik did not play. Yugoslavia were thought to come second, while Czechoslovakia were favourites to take bronze. The Soviets took off in a style murdering Czechoslovakia 8½-1½ and then West Germany 7½-2½. As they earned comfortable advantage over the rest Yugoslavia lost to Czechoslovakia but still kept second position because of relatively best result achieved vs USSR (4-6). Round five 6½-3½ vs Czechoslovakia sealed Yugoslavia's silver medals and the Czechs quite easily took the bronze beating West Germany on the sixth day. The last day created one of biggest sensations ever: Yugoslavia defeated the Soviet Union. The Soviets were probably aiming at 10 quick draws but they miscalculated and lost at two bottom boards. Still, they won with impressive margin.

Team USSR were dominant all over the field winning with 7 point advantage. Of 10 best results at individual boards they won 8. Korchnoi's 5½/6 was the best result of the event. Of other teams, Rabar of Yugoslavia (3½/5) and Kozma (4/6 and an excellent win over Tal) must be mentioned. The Germans did pretty bad. Their only player with a plus score was IM Schmid (3/5).