China has taken part in the Chess Olympiads since 1978, the first in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was here that the Chinese soon put themselves on the map when one of their players, Liu Wenzhe, rated a mere 2200, defeated in spectacular style with a stunning queen sacrifice a top western grandmaster, the hapless Jan Hein Donner of The Netherlands, in just 20 moves. Since then, China has made rapid progress with the women's team taking the bronze medal and the men's team coming sixth at the 1990 Olympiad, and a few days later, China was eventually awarded the special status of "one-zone federation" (3.5). They won over or drew some of the strong teams and finally ranked 18th. China's women went on to retain their position in the next two Olympiads and in 1996 won the silver medals. Meanwhile, the men's team never have ranked below 15th place. In December, 1980, three Chinese teenager girls made their debut on the international games. They drew the world champion, USSR Team in the Chess Olympiad and tied for 5th place. In the later Chess Olympiad held every two years, China continued to make progress. At the 27th Chess Olympiad held in Dubai, UAE, they tied for 3rd place. Chinese grandmaster, Liu Shilan, who played on the first board ranked third of that board, was granted the Best Player. China Women's Team surprisingly won over several tough games with teams such as former World Runner-up, Bulgaria and former World Bronze Medalist, Romania. And they lost the game with USSR Team only by 1 to 2. China Men's Team also got prominent results in the past two sessions of the Chess Olympiad. The team tied for 8th place in the 26 Chess Olympiad in 1984. In the 27th Chess Olympiad held in 1986, where 108 teams participated, they drew the former World Champion, Yugoslavia Team and tied for 5th place with Bulgaria and Iceland by 9 victories, 1 draw and 4 losses. This was the highest place ever achieved by Asian Men's Team in Olympiad. The best result in the past was 11th place achieved by Philippines. The performance of Xu Jun, top player of China Team, was especially remarkable.