After a lost connection and two forfeited games, an appeal to the World Chess Federation yielded success as India and Russia were declared joint winners of Fide Online Chess Olympiad last week. The much-awaited grand finale - followed by a 64,000-plus strong audience - ended on a tame note as a technical glitch forced the Fide president to pass an equitable judgment as India registered their first-ever triumph at Olympiad level. In 2014, India won the bronze in the open section, and the women’s best finish was fourth in 2012.
The finale began on a cautious note as the 2419-rated Indian side held higher ranked Russia - with an average rating of 2599 - to a 3-3 draw, that too without the presence of experienced V Anand. The five-time world champion returned for the crucial second round, where Anand, skipper Vidit Gujrathi and D Harika split the points with their higher-ranked Russian GMs Ian Nepomniachtchi, Dubov Daniil and Alexandra Kosteniuk, respectively.
With India’s fate hanging in the hands of World Rapid champion K Humpy and U-20 boards - where youngsters Divya Deshmukh and Nihal Sarin had the upper hand - an unprecedented event of connection error happened. Within seconds, both Divya and Nihal were declared defeated as they “lost connection to their games and forfeited on time”. Both Divya and Nihal had no time to make their moves while their opponents Polina Shuvalova and Andrey Esipenko had 1.22 and 1.31 minutes left on clock. Both the games were played for 25 moves.
On the third board, Humpy was two pawns down in a double-rook endgame and lost with her black pieces to Aleksandra Goryachkina in 88 moves. Thereafter, the India team lodged an official appeal on the two games they “forfeited on time.” In an official statement, the Fide president Arkady Dvorkovich said, “The Online Chess Olympiad has been impacted by a global Internet outage that severely affected several countries, including India. The appeals committee has examined all the evidence. As Fide president, I made the decision to award gold medals to both teams.”
