Caruana’s arrival followed that of Wesley So, the world’s seventh-ranked player, who in June 2014 had switched federations from the Philippines. So has said that he paid his own transfer fees to make that happen, but when he and Caruana joined Hikaru Nakamura, the world’s sixth-ranked player, on the United States team, it created a formidable lineup. (Teams at the Chess Olympiad are composed of five players, four of whom play each match.)

The nationality changes, while unusual, were legal under the rules of international chess. But they still raised eyebrows. Magnus Carlsen, the world champion from Norway, joked on Twitter that he and his teammates had simply been outgunned. After Norway finished a surprising fifth, Carlsen wrote, “probably need an even better squad to go further though, wonder if Caruana and So are still for sale.”

The United States’ gold is the team’s first since 1976. But in that year, the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc countries boycotted the competition because it was held in Israel. The United States’ previous gold medals were in the 1930s — 1931, 1933, 1935 and 1937 — before the Soviet Union began to dominate the competition.

Though Sinquefield has no official role with the United States team, he said Tuesday that it could still improve. He pointed to development programs in the United States, particularly ones organized by the Kasparov Chess Foundation — named after Garry Kasparov, the former world champion — that are working to produce the next generation of top players. Indeed, one of the United States’ top young players, Jeffery Xiong, a 15-year-old grandmaster from Texas, last month became the second-youngest world junior champion in chess history.

As for recruiting more foreign players, Sinquefield said that he had not been approached by anyone seeking to follow in the footsteps of Caruana and So, though he added, “I don’t have any specific plans, but I am open to suggestions.”