India and Russia were declared joint winners of the 2020 Online Chess Olympiad on Sunday after the final was marred by internet disconnection and server malfunction. Russia was initially declared the winner after two Indian players, Nihal Sarin and Divya Deshmukh, lost time in the final after suffering a server disconnect. India filed a protest against the controversial decision which was reviewed. This was the first time that FIDE, the international chess federation, held the Olympiad online, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich made the decision to award FIDE #ChessOlympiad gold medals online to both teams – India and Russia,” the world chess body tweeted.
“We are the champions! Congratulations Russia!” Wrote the legendary Viswananthan Anand on his Twitter account after the final.
We are the Champions !! Congratulations Russia!
– Viswanathan Anand (@ vishy64theking) August 30, 2020
The first round of the final ended in a 3-3 draw and all six games ended in neutral.
Russia won the second round 4.5-1.5 with Andrey Esipenko victories over Sarin and Polina Shuvalova over Deshmukh, sparking controversy as the Indians claimed the losses were due to connection problems.
In the second round, Anand, replacing P Harikrishna, drew with Ian Nepomniachtchi, while captain Vidit Gujrathi drew with Daniil Dubov.
Koneru Humpy, the world rapids champion, was defeated by Alexandra Goryachkina and D Harika drew with Alexandra Kosteniuk.
In the first round matches, Gujrathi drew with Nepomniachtchi, while Harikrishna and Vladimir Artemiev shared the honors.
Promoted
In other matches, Humpy and Harika drew with Lagno and Kosteniuk respectively, while young prodigy R Praggnanandhaa and Deshmukh also held on to their opponents.
Reacting to the victory, Humpy said: “Well, it’s a little strange that we lost due to a service failure and our appeal was accepted. Well, I can say that we fought to the end.”
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