India, Russia Share Online Olympiad Gold As Global Internet Outage Impacts Final

PeterDoggers

Updated: Aug 31, 2020, 4:30 AM | 314 | Chess Event Coverage

India and Russia both received FIDE Online Olympiad gold medals after a ruling from FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich as Sunday's final was marred by a major internet disruption.

Five weeks of online play with more than 1,500 international participants deserved a final match that would be decided on the chessboard—and of course, a winner. Instead, the tournament ended in an anticlimax on Sunday.

Unlike other sports, chess has been blessed with the possibility of holding numerous tournaments online during the past few months. During this Online Olympiad, which saw connection problems in the division stage as well as the semifinals and final, one of the downsides of online play was revealed once again.

India-Russia

Bo.	1	India	Rtg	3 : 3	2	Russia	Rtg
1.1	GM	Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi	2636	½ - ½	GM	Nepomniachtchi, Ian	2778
1.2	GM	Harikrishna, Pentala	2690	½ - ½	GM	Artemiev, Vladislav	2769
1.3	GM	Koneru, Humpy	2483	½ - ½	GM	Lagno, Kateryna	2521
1.4	GM	Harika, Dronavalli	2450	½ - ½	GM	Kosteniuk, Alexandra	2517
1.5	GM	Praggnanandhaa, R	1781	½ - ½	GM	Sarana, Alexey	2618
1.6	WIM	Divya, Deshmukh	1775	½ - ½	WGM	Shuvalova, Polina	2379
Bo.	2	Russia	Rtg	2½:1½	1	India	Rtg
1.1	GM	Nepomniachtchi, Ian	2778	½ - ½	GM	Anand, Viswanathan	2751
1.2	GM	Dubov, Daniil	2770	½ - ½	GM	Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi	2636
1.3	GM	Goryachkina, Aleksandra	2502	1 - 0	GM	Koneru, Humpy	2483
1.4	GM	Kosteniuk, Alexandra	2517	½ - ½	GM	Harika, Dronavalli	2450
1.5	GM	Esipenko, Andrey	2629		GM	Nihal, Sarin	2418
1.6	WGM	Shuvalova, Polina	2379		WIM	Divya, Deshmukh	1775

The day started with a hard-fought first match that finished in a 3-3 tie after all six games ended in a draw. A highly interesting encounter was the clash between GMs Humpy Koneru and Kateryna Lagno, where the Indian player missed a win at the very end:

The second match saw three draws and a win for GM Aleksandra Goryachkina vs. Koneru on the top four boards. On the lowest boards, the two players from India, GM Nihal Sarin and WIM Divya Deshmukh, both lost on time due to a disconnection.

Like Armenia in the semifinal, India appealed the final score. Unlike in the semifinal, this time a very clear, external reason for the connection problem was revealed: a major global internet outage of such proportions that it made the news reports of CNN, MSN, Newsweek, Forbes, and many other media outlets.

Provided with server data and other information by Chess.com, the appeals committee couldn't arrive at a unanimous decision to resolve the situation; therefore, the FIDE president declared both countries as joint winners.

Commenting to ESPN India, GM Viswanathan Anand said he didn't expect this decision. "At the end of the day, I think it's quite fair because both teams were evenly balanced in this match. It's certainly a nice and pleasant turn."

The Online Olympiad was followed closely by chess fans in India, which has celebrated a chess boom during the past few weeks. This was illustrated by the fact that the hashtag #ChessOlympiad was the second-most trending topic in the country on Twitter on Sunday, helped by one particular tweet from none other than the prime minister himself.

Congratulations to our chess players for winning the FIDE Online #ChessOlympiad. Their hard work and dedication are admirable. Their success will surely motivate other chess players. I would like to congratulate the Russian team as well.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 30, 2020

Meanwhile, members of team Russia were less pleased with the outcome...

Let’s clarify one thing: India didn’t win the Olympiad, but was rather named by FIDE a co-champion. imho, there is a huge difference between actually “winning” the gold or just being awarded one without winning a single game in the final #onlineolympiad
— Alexandra Kosteniuk (@chessqueen) August 30, 2020

Smart desicion to please Indian chess community, meanwhile forgetting about other fans & players. Selective nobleness. @FIDE_chess #ChessOlympiad #Chess
— Yan Nepomniachtchi (@lachesisq) August 30, 2020

...while some neutral viewers could find some humor in it all.

Actually, each of the 8 Candidates getting a World Championship match against Magnus Carlsen is fine with me as well.♟️#Candidates2020
— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) August 30, 2020

Final | All games

The FIDE Online Olympiad was a major online chess event for national teams that ran July 25-August 30 on the Chess.com server. More than 1,500 participants and 163 teams from all over the world played.

Each team consisted of six players, including at least two women, at least one player who is 20 or younger, and at least one female player who is 20 or younger. The time control for all matches was 15 minutes for the game and a five-second increment per move, starting from move one.

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Peter Doggers

Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”

Peter's first book The Chess Revolution is out now!

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India, Russia Share Online Olympiad Gold As Global Internet Outage Impacts Final

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