The second edition of the FIDE Online Olympiad took place from August 20 to September 15, 2021. In the annual national event that gathers all FIDE affiliated federations on the online podium, players from all five continents participated. Teams from more than 150 nations took part in the prestigious online event with Russia taking home the Gold Medal and retaining their dominance in the sport.
In the finals that were held on 15th September, the Russian team was pitted against Team USA and defeated them by a double 3½-2½. The online playing serve was provided by Chess.com.
FIDE Chess Olympiad 2021: The pools that picked the winners
The gala event had around 1717 players from across the continents with the participation of around 888 titled players that included 209 grandmasters and 244 international masters. Each team had six players with at least three female participants and two junior players.
Women and Chess: On Pride & Prejudices
The event featured two main stages: the “Divisions stage”, and the “Play-offs” stage. All games had a 15 minutes + 5 seconds increment per move time control.
The Top Division had 40 teams eyeing the 8 spots that comprised the quarterfinals. The teams were split into four pools that played a Round Robin format of all-play-all for the first three days. Two top teams had the entry to quarterfinals.
The quarter-finals of the event ran from 13 to 15 September 2021. The duels consisted of two matches with every team winning either one or both the matches coming to a draw. In the case of ties, there would be one 3+2 blitz match and Armageddon if required.
In Pool A of the Top Division, despite a promising performance by Team China, an unexpected setback against veterans Armenia in the last round sent them packing. Though Armenia was out-rated by a considerable margin on all boards, the nation that breathes chess, bounced back with strong play to get beyond the ELO rating.
In Pool B, the Indian team dominated triumphing over Hungary, Moldova, and Slovenia with a top score of 16/18. Hungary came second and Azerbaijan third. India’s secret sauce of succeeding to the semi was the division of burden between the players. Every player participated a minimum of three times, most going for five. GM Vaishali R stood out playing 6, with an undefeated score of four and a half by six.
However, the most impressive score was that of GM Zhao Xue (China) on board three at 8/9.
7 Integral Rules of Chess You Can’t Afford to Miss
In Pool C of Top Division, Russia led unparalleled from the beginning. Their last round victory over Latvia at 6-0 eased them into a massive final score of 18/18. Much Like India, the Russian team also shared the tasks between the players and incredibly lost only 4 rounds out of 54 games. The icing on the cake was that none of the six female players lost any of the 27 games they played!
Germany followed the Russians with a score of 14/18. Though they won the last three matches, the dent made by the not-so-great performance in the start remained a hiccup for them.
The Polish and American teams loomed over the Pool D Top Division from beginning till end with a score of 16/18. Poland had the advantage of first place on a tie-break as well as winning their individual match by 4½-1½.
Despite the efforts that granted them the third place, Team Canada suffered from the 7th round defeat from Peru. The Netherlands too faced a setback despite having a good team onboard.
The Online Chess Olympiad 2021: the Indian Roster
The semis had top performers from all pools. India entered the semi’s following its victory over Ukraine in the quarterfinals. From the other half, Russia defeated Hungary winning both sets 3.5-2.5, while Poland had to quit following their defeat to power-packed China at 4.5-1.5 and 4-2.
In the semi, the US clearly had the upper hand against India. India was unable to keep up with their victory in the online Olympiad 2020 and went down to the US team in the semi.
India’s Golden Victory at the First Ever Online Chess Olympiad
The Indian team lost in the blitz tie-breakers 4-5.1.5. Though India scored against the U.S. in the opening round at 5-1, the American team clinched the second round 4-2, turning things around. In the first round against the US, victors from the Indian team consisted of former champion and Team Captain Viswanathan Anand, P.Harikrishna, Vaishali R and D.Harika. Koneru Humpi and Nihal Sarin ended in a draw with Irina Krush and Awonder Liang respectively.
The second round saw the Americans bouncing back as Anand went down to Xiong – Anand’s first loss in the event – and Vidit Gujrati to Ray Robson. India’s young prodigy and star of the 2020 Olympics, R.Praggnanandhaa lost to Awonder. Koneru Humpy and R.Vaishali drew against their Amerian counterparts Irina and Thalia. The only victory for India was that of Harika who won against Nazi.
In the blitz tie-break, the US dominated as Xiong beat Harikrishna, Robson over B.Adhipan and Nihal Sarin drew with Awonder.
Meanwhile, in the semi between Russia and China, the former won over the Chinese, securing their face-off against the US in the finals. Russia won against China with 3.5-2.5 in the first round and 4-2 in the second.
The Finals
In the first match, Team USA had an initial lead, winning a game as Awonder Liang brought Russia’s Andrey Episenko down twice. But the formidable Russian force bounced back with subsequent victories as Aleksandra Goryachkina checkmated Irina Krush and Vladislav Artemiev defeated Ray Robson.
The second match saw both teams changing their line-ups. Not willing to put themselves at stake with a comfortable 3-3 tie in the second match the Americans plunged deeper to take risks post their initial loss. The initial two boards culminated in a draw.
The best game in the finals and perhaps in the whole event was Russia’s Alexandra Kosteniuk's victory against Irina Krush.