At the Olympaide, chess was not played on the board but online
Photo: Mark Lennihan / APAfter a server failure and internet blackout, the finalists Russia and India were jointly named winners at the Chess Olympiad, which was held online for the first time. The tournament is considered the most important team competition in chess.
Russia led 2.5: 1.5 in the second final match when a server failure interrupted internet connections. In the two open games India had a good chance of a 3: 3 and thus a play-off, but the timeout ended the match. An immediate protest by the Indian federation was accepted by the President of the World Chess Federation Fide, Arkady Dvorkovich. Instead of continuing the interrupted games, he declared both nations to be winners.
Former world champion Viswanathan Anand was happy with Fide's decision. "That was a dramatic turn," said the Indian "ESPN". He was already disappointed to only win silver. He wanted to comfort his younger teammates, 14-year-old Divya Deshmukh and 16-year-old Nihal Sarin. Only then did he find out that Fide was checking the Internet failure and that the error might not have been with the Indian team. "I didn't expect the decision," said Anand. The fact that Russia and India win gold is a "nice and pleasant turn."
Russian player Ian Nepomniachtchi, on the other hand, was not happy with the decision. "Smart decision to please the Indian chess community while forgetting about other fans and players. Selective nobility," he tweeted.
The German team was eliminated in the first playoff round against Hungary on Thursday.
Icon: The mirrorptz / dpa