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India and Russia declared joint winners at International Chess Olympiad

August 31, 2020
The Commune

India made history on Sunday (August 31) by winning the championship at the International Chess Olympiad 2020 along with Russia. This is the first ever that India has won the Chess Olympiad and the first one for Russia since 2002.

This is the first time that the Chess Olympiad was conducted online by the International Chess Federation (FIDE).

The grand finale was however marred by server malfunction allegedly due to a global internet outage that had severely many countries including India. Two of the Indian players, Nihal Sarin and Divya Deshmukh, lost out connection and thereby crucial time towards the end of the game,

Initially, Russia was declared winners.  The decision was reviewed after India raised the issue of server malfunction and internet outage. T

he India team was represented by Vishwanathan Anand, Vidit, Harikrishna, Koneru Hampy, Harika, Praggnanandhaa, Nihal Sarin and Divya Deshmukh. The Russian team members were Nepomniachtchi, Dubov, Goryachkina, Artemiev, Esipenko, Lagno, Kosteniuk, Sarana and Shuvalova.

All games ended in draw in the first round. It was a narrow escape by Russia, as India was clearly ahead which is when the Indian team faced problems. FIDE then declared both India and Russia as joint winners and gold medals were awarded to both the teams.

World Champion and Grand Master Vishwanathan Anand took to twitter to announce the victory.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju congratulated the winners.