"If you are destined to achieve greatness, greatness will come to you in one way or another".
Today, that proverb is justified once more as India wins Gold medal in the first-ever online Chess Olympiad. But the story isn't that just simple. India lost the gold at first.
Yes. At first, Russia has declared the winner of the competition as the Indian player ran out of time in the final round. As India appealed to the International Chess Federation (FIDE) citing the cause of the server crash, the International Chess Federation declared India and Russia to be sharing the gold medal.
Indian players, Nihal Sarin and Divya Deshmukh had drawn the first round in 3-3 scores. But in the second round, Indian players lost the battle in 1.5-4.5 to their Russian counterparts, Andrey Esipenko and Polina Shuvaolva. The Indian team applied to the FIDE immediately server disconnection issue. After one hour of a thorough review, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich declared India and Russia co-champions of the Olympiad.
According to the FIDE website, two Indian competitors Nihal Sarin and Divya Deshmukh lost connection which cost them the match.
Anand, Vidit, Harika drew their rounds, where the rapid chess champion, Koneru Hampy lost the match to her Russian counterpart, Goryachkina.
Here is the reaction of GM Viswanathan Anand-
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