Of 18 teams that arrived at Mendoza the Soviet Union and USA (led by two Soviet expatriates by the way) were by far the strongest. Only the Germans and Argentina might have been hoping to keep pace of the leading two. The system of play was quite extraordinary. Only two preliminary groups of nine teams each were composed, followed by three final groups of six teams, with results from preliminaries carried over to the finals. As a result, each team played a total of 11 matches, of which only three in the final stage.

There were no major surprises in the qualifying stage, only the US lost to Switzerland 3-1. Luckily for the Americans, the Swiss came fourth and were knocked out of the championship final. The Soviets won group 1 with ease but they scored barely 5½/8 from matches to be carried over to the finals.

USSR took gold as the Americans only drew two matches and lost to the Soviets on the last day (they needed a 3½-½ margin in order to win the championship). Argentina took bronze edging out strong West German side by half of a point. The Soviet domination was overwhelming. They scored 37/44 and conceded only two game losses. All of team members won prizes for best individual scores!