Updated: August 31, 2020 12:19:21 am
Up to 92,000 people registered from India alone to watch the final. (Twitter / FIDE)
A server outage caused India and Russia to share the trophy at the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad on Sunday. Nihal Sarin and Divya Deshmukh were initially considered to have lost their matches due to time running out, after the internet connection failed. Both Indians occupied good positions in their contests. However, shortly afterwards, the International Chess Federation decreed that the two teams be declared joint winners.
The eventual decision was a relief for the Indians, because when the server crashed and the screens went still, panic seized the contingent, spread throughout different parts of the country. “I did not know what was happening. Nobody knew how to deal with the situation, ”non-player captain Narayanan Srinath told the official website chessbase.com in the post-match interview before the final verdict was announced.
🇷🇺 Russia and India 🇮🇳 are co-champions of the first FIDE Online # Chess Olympiad.
Tournament website: https://t.co/bIcj0hRMek#Chess # Indian Chess # шахматы pic.twitter.com/gP4sULP2kr
– International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) August 30, 2020
When the internet connection went haywire, there was a sense of shock and disbelief. Because they were on the brink of a historic victory. After a stagnant first round, Sarin and Deshmukh, both in the junior category, enjoyed supremacy over their Russian opponents Andrei Esipenko and Polina Shuvalova. Deshmukh had set a difficult trap for Shuvalova, while Sarin was assured of at least one draw against Esipenko. Koneru Humpy, who had lost 18 seconds of his match, had just won a beautiful victory. His world was suddenly falling apart. However, Srinath had the presence of mind to consult the referee, who told him to wait 15 minutes. “How could I? I was impatient and my head was spinning. But at that time, we had a short paragraph ready so that we could file the complaint as soon as possible.”
The next 30-odd minutes could have felt like 30 hours. R Praggnanandhaa, sitting at his home in a Chennai suburb, felt his heart sink. His sister R Vaishali was speechless. Miles away, in Thrissur, Sarin twisted and turned restlessly in his chair, unable to comprehend the situation. the generally optimistic Viswanathan Anand said he could feel sweat dripping down his forehead. “There was so much tension around that I didn’t know how to react,” said Praggnanandhaa, who had drawn his match against Alexey Sarana, a contest he felt he should have won.
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The Indians had little hope, as FIDE had been tough on implementing the internet cutoff rule, which states that it is the players’ prerogative to ensure stable internet connectivity. A few days ago, in the quarterfinals against Armenia, India had an internet outage in their favor, although in their group match against Mongolia, they had to settle for a draw after the connection was dropped.
So the tension of pessimism was not unfounded. “I had no hope (that FIDE would reverse the decision),” Srinath admitted.
We are the Champions!! 🇮🇳🥇Super happy!
Congratulations to Russia too! # Chess Olympiad– Vidit Gujrathi (@viditchess) August 30, 2020
The end result was a pleasant surprise for the Indian team. Anand’s tweet aptly summed up the bitter sweetness of the sentiment: “We are the champions. Congratulations Russia! “Humpy felt it was strange.” Well, it’s a little strange that we lost due to a server failure and our appeal was accepted. Well, I can say we fought to the end, “he tweeted.
Meanwhile, the Twitter world frantically celebrated India’s triumph, especially the contribution of young people. “The positive side is how young people have performed under pressure. It’s a great sign for the country, ”said Grandmaster RB Ramesh, who felt the internet outage was unfortunate, but sharing gold was a sensible way to deal with the setback.
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It was a deliberate tactic to line up the substitute and younger players on the Indian team. For example, Anand let Vidit Gujrathi open the first round against Ian Nepomniachtchi. He also allowed Pentala Harikrishna a game in the first because he had a Polish league match lined up later in the day. “We always made sure that it wasn’t just the top four who always got the game. We were eager to use the bench and give them a good exposure. Sometimes we overlook juniors, ”Anand said in an interview with chessbase.com. Looking at the bigger picture, the server outage was a reminder that online chess is only a practical alternative in tough times, not a fail-safe solution for the future. The popularity of the sport has grown online due to the stagnation imposed by the pandemic, but the online platform cannot be the future of the game.
Up to 92,000 people registered from India alone to watch the final, while nearly a million watched it around the world. Many of the popular chess hosting websites increased the capacity of their servers to meet demand, technicians and engineers were asked to work overtime, and others were hired to handle the world fever. But the frenzy of the final day showed that technology is not infallible. It almost cost India its first Olympic gold medal.
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