Amidst the Covid-19 gloom that halted the regular chess championships, Indian chess proved its mettle, coming victorious in the 2020 Online Chess Olympiad on Sunday August 30th. Though a joint victory with the Russian team - owing to server malfunctions - the glory of winning the first ever online Olympiad is sweet incense for the team, for Indian Chess and to the nation’s dampened spirits.
Chess Olympiad, dating back to its launch in 1924, is one of the most prestigious events in the game. This is the first time in history that the Olympiad is held on a virtual platform, going “live” on social media platforms and complete with commentaries on Youtube! FIDE, the international chess federation, decided to hold the Olympiad in an online format thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Proud Moment for Indian Chess
For the Indian Chess team, the well-earned victory is indeed a Moment de Gloire as the last mentionable performance was in the 2014 Olympiad where it managed a bronze medal.
Though marred by a net outage on several occasions, the online Olympiad reinstates India’s stature in world chess and highlights the undeterred, or even more, the growing popularity of the mind game. The social media live streaming is reported to have peaked, at certain points, to a viewership of over 40,000 people. This interestingly surpasses the capacity of Wankhede cricket stadium, Mumbai, of around 33,000 people!
The online Olympiad had many hiccups as well as surprise victories as internet disconnections and team-appeals marred the schedules and the predictions. In the quarter-finals of India v/s Armenia, the latter did a long protest delaying the start of the second round of matches regarding internet disconnection. Later they withdrew from the game following the rejection of their appeal.
Similarly, the Indian team went for appeal in the finals with Russia, as server issues shadowed the game results.
Led by Levon Aronian, the Armenian team displayed excellent form, beating Greece in the pre-quarterfinals. Though India had been dominant in the tournament beating China’s formidable team, it was a heavy cross over for the Indian team into the semi-finals as our veterans had a tough face-off with their strong Armenian counterparts in the quarter-finals.
Though he faced tough competition, India’s grandmaster Viswanathan Anand made some swift moves against Armenia’s Levon Aronian to reach a 2 vs 1 rook and pawn endgame concluding the first game in a draw, much to the relief of the Indian audience.
To quote the official tweet by FIDE, "Following the disconnection of Haik Martirosyan in Match 1 of the Quarter-final against India, Armenia filed an official appeal that was rejected by the Appeals Committee. Armenia defaulted Match 2. As a result, India is through to the semi-finals."
A Backdrop to the Chess Olympiad 2020
In a chess Olympiad, each match comprises three mini-matches, two of which include six games. Every team must mandatorily include at least:
2 women
1 player U-20 (born in 2000 or later)
1 girl U-20 (born in 2000 or later)
During a tie, a single Armageddon game would decide the winner. Each team can choose one of their representatives from a category of players - women, juniors, girls, open - against the deciding encounter. Black gets 4 minutes and White gets 5 minutes.
In the semi-finals, Koneru Humpy, the World Women Rapid Champion from India won a stunning victory in a crucial Armageddon game with Black against Poland’s Monika Socko, to pave the way for the Indian team to make it to the historical final of FIDE.
The Indian team led by Vidit Gujarati lost the first round 4-2. As both Gujrati and Anand lost on the first two boards, women players Harika Dronavalli and Humpy drew their games. Nihal Sarin was the only junior player who scored a win and gained a point for the country.
Yet, Team India did bounce back in the second round with a laudable 4.5-1.5 win. Without shifting the players on the top four boards, the senior pros Vidit, Anand, Humpy and Harika confronted the Polish team. Vantika Agarwal’s game on the last board ended in a draw, with 4.5 points that led the tie into an Armageddon.
Koneru Humpy was picked by the tournament organisers against Socko, as they also decided on the colour of pieces for Armageddon. Poland got the white pieces with an extra minute on the clock as well, whereas with the black pieces, Humpy had to hold fast to a draw to win the overall match. Humpy displayed amazing valor as she led India into the semi-finals with a 2-1.
The Final Face-Off
In the final face-off with Russia, the title favourites, the first round ended in a draw of 3-3. All the six games finished in stalemate. In the second round, Russia got the upper hand with 4.5-1.5, as Andrey Esipenko won over Sarin and Polina Shuvalova defeated Deshmukh. The game stirred up controversy yet again as the Indian team blamed the server malfunction and net issues for the losses.
In the second round, Anand, who substituted P Harikrishna, made a draw with Ian Nepomniachtchi. Team captain Vidit Gujrathi drew with Daniil Dubov while Koneru Humpy faced defeat in the hands of Alexandra Goryachkina. D Harika also shared the honours with Alexandra Kosteniuk.
In the first round matches, Harikrishna drew with Vladimir Artemiev and Gujrathi with Nepomniachtchi.
In the following games, Humpy drew with Lagno and Harika with Kosteniuk. Young prodigy R Praggnanandhaa as well as Deshmukh, put up impressive performances holding their opponents in the subsequent games.
Russia were initially declared winners when India’s Nihal Sarin and Divya Deshmukh lost out on time during the final due to a server disconnection. As India lodged complaints, the results were reviewed and FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich announced the decision to award gold medals to both the teams.
The Indian Olympiad Team 2020 included the captain Vidit Santosh Gujarati, grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand, Koneru Humpy, P. Harikrishna, Dronavalli Harika, Bhakti Kulkarni, Divya Deshmukh, Nihal Sarin, R. Praggnanandha, Vantika Agrawal, Arvindh Chithambaram and R. Vaishali.