FIDE Online Chess Olympiad: India-Russia declared joint winners
India and Russia were declared as the joint winners of the 2020 FIDE Online Chess Olympiad. Internet disconnection and server malfunction marred the final leading to India provisionally losing 1.5-4.5 to Russia in the second round and subsequently the entire match on Sunday. The Indian team formally appealed against the internet outage as FIDE's review committee decided to award both teams the title.
Internet issues mar the final on Sunday
On board five and six both India's Nihal Sarin and Divya Deshmukh's games saw disconnection which saw the nation drop points. Meanwhile on board 3, Koneru Humpy also faced some internet issues as she lost some time due to the same. After India's appeal, FIDE's review committee investigated the issue and came to the conclusion that both teams should be joint winners.
First round: 3-3 deadlock between India and Russia
After the first round, both India and Russia had remained on equal footing after all the games of the first round in the final ended in draws. The first round ended in a 3-3 deadlock. Russia started as slight favourites over India with their average rating of 12 players (2,519) higher than India's 2,419. However, the opening round was an evenly-matched contest.
Here's how match 1 unfolded between India and Russia
Match 1: India 3-3 Russia (W) Vidit Gujrathi 0.5-0.5 Ian Nepomniachtchi (B) P Harikrishna 0.5-0.5 Vladislav Artemiev (W) Koneru Humpy 0.5-0.5 Kateryna Lagno (B) Harika Dronavalli 0.5-0.5 Alexandra Kosteniuk (W) R Praggnanandhaa 0.5- 0.5 Alexey Sarana (B) Divya Deshmukh 0.5-0.5 Polina Shuvalova
Internet issues had bothered the tourney earlier
Incidentally, India's quarters victory against Armenia had also been dogged by similar complaints of a server crash. Armenian players had lodged an appeal saying they had lost internet connection but the appeal had been turned down. India then beat Poland in the semis.
