FIDE Online Olympiad 2020

[Aris Marghetis]

strange that chess.com cannot dedicate a server for such important tournament

I have not heard of any indication that this was a chess.com server issue. What have you heard differently? Note that the games still seemed accessible by opponents, Arbiters, etc.

[Kerry Liles]

I have not heard of any indication that this was a chess.com server issue. What have you heard differently? Note that the games still seemed accessible by opponents, Arbiters, etc.

The latest reports I have seen indicate that it was a transit issue - a major Internet bandwidth provide - Cloudfare - experienced a widespread failure
in what can loosely be called 'the backbone' of the Net and this likely affected a large number of regions BUT NOT ALL.

I don't think it was a problem local to chess.com

Some analysis that may or may not make sense to many people:

https://blog.cloudflare.com/analysis...evel-3-outage/

[Wayne Komer]

FIDE Online Olympiad 2020

August 31, 2020

Finals Wrap-up

From the FIDE site:

https://www.fide.com/news/721

India – Russia

After a 3-3 tie in the first round, where all six games ended in a draw, the second and decisive match was impacted by a global internet outage, that severely affected many countries including India. Two of the Indian players, Nihal Sarin and Divya Deshmukh, lost connection towards the end of the game, subsequently losing on time. The incident happened when three games ended in draws and the outcome of the match was still unclear.

As a result, Russia was initially proclaimed the winner of the match, after being adjudicated a victory by 4½-1½ in the second round. However, India appealed the result on the grounds that their players (along with hundreds of other users) were logged out of Chess.com as a consequence of a massive internet outage at the time of the games. As soon as the last game between Goryachkina and Koneru was over (Gorychkina won in a long battle in a rook endgame), India appealed the match result on the grounds that their players (along with hundreds of other users) were logged out of Chess.com as a consequence of a massive internet outage at the time of the games.

The Appeals Committee examined all the evidence provided by Chess.com, as well as information gathered from other sources about the Cloudflare crash that caused the outage. After being informed of their considerations and in absence of a unanimous verdict, the FIDE President made the decision to award Gold Medals to both teams.

It is very unfortunate that technical difficulties got in the way of the final: until that moment, the match between India and Russia had been one of the most thrilling and balanced seen at the 2020 Online Chess Olympiad. In the first round, all games ended in a draw, but it was actually a narrow escape by Russia, as India was clearly pressing for a match win. Vidit and Nepomniachtchi engaged in a fight in one of the sharpest lines of the Grunfeld defense, and just when Vidit seemed to be very close to launching a decisive attack, Ian found a jaw-dropping resource, sacrificing his rook on f2. One could call the whole plan a gamble, and probably the engines will sentence that the move was not correct. But chess is a sport (especially, rapid chess) and the counter-attack by the Russian star posed too many problems for his opponent. Nepomniachtchi created very serious threats and it was Vidit who had to go for a perpetual check.

Humpy Koneru and Kateryna Lagno also went for a sharp Grunfeld line, that evolved into a very unbalanced position: Humpy was an exchange up, but her pawn structure was destroyed, and Lagno had the bishop pair. Later on, the game transformed into an ending where the Indian had two rooks against a queen. Humpy was clearly winning, but with an exposed king and being in severe time trouble, she failed to escape the perpetual check by Lagno, and the game ended in a threefold repetition.

Kosteniuk was probably the only Russian player who enjoyed a favorable position in the first round. She came out of the opening with the pair of bishops and better piece placement, and with a steady hand, she took the game to a better ending. It was probably the right decision, but the endgame advantage proved to be more difficult to convert than it seemed at first, and the game ended in a draw, the sixth in the match.

The second round started with important changes in both teams: India threw Anand into the battle, Vidit moved to board two replacing Harikrishna, and Nihal Sarin replaced Praggnanandhaa. On the Russian side, Dubov, Goryachkina and Esipenko replaced Artemiev, Lagno, and Sarana, respectively.

Anand played very solidly against Nepomniachtchi, probably as a part of a team strategy where India put its hopes mainly on the lower boards. Vidit, playing with White, accepted a pawn sacrifice by Dubov, an ingenious plan that allowed Black to quickly activate his pieces and get very comfortable play. The two top boards ended in a draw.

Aleksandra Goryachkina scored the only victory for the Russian team, against Humpy Koneru. The runner up of the 2020 Women's World Championship played a good game, where she obtained an advantage and once again demonstrated her excellent technique. This game was affected by connectivity issues, as Humpy got disconnected and, even though she could reconnect before her time run out, she lost some very valuable time.

Two other games were affected by the same issues came to an abrupt end. At the moment of disconnection, Nihal Sarin was defending his grounds against Andrey Esipenko who enjoyed a certain advantage. At the girls’ board, Divya Deshmukh was on the verge of a victory against Polina Shuvalova. It was just a matter of time until a decisive attack was launched. “Under this time control, having an attack against the king is like being one pawn up”, joked Kramnik about the position on this game. The engines actually evaluate the position +2 in White’s (Divya’s) favor.

With one of the two games very likely to be an Indian victory, the match seemed destined to be decided again in an Armageddon game. But the incident with disconnection did not let it happen. The ensuing decision, under these unprecedented circumstances, was to award gold medals to both teams. Even if shared, this can be considered the first victory of India in a Chess Olympiad, and the first one for Russia since 2002.

Official statement by FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich:

"The Online Chess Olympiad has been impacted by a global internet outage, that severely affected several countries, including India. Two of the Indian players have been affected and lost connection, when the outcome of the match was still unclear. The Appeals Committee has examined all the evidence provided by Chess.com, as well as information gathered from other sources about this internet outage. After being informed of their considerations and in absence of an unanimous decision, and taken into account these unprecedented circumstances, as FIDE President I made the decision to award Gold Medals to both teams."
___________

Gazprom Brilliancy Prize

Gazprom, General Partner of the first Online Chess Olympiad, is the sponsor of the Brilliancy Prize for the best game of the competition.

A beautiful trophy has been specially designed for the occasion, and FIDE has invited a panel of popular Streamers and YouTubers to be the judges. They will announce their votes along the week in their respective channels, and the final winner will be announced on Friday, once all their votes have been gathered. Judges have been asked to give 3 points to their favorite game, 2 to their second favorite, and 1 to the third.

This is the list of judges:

Anna Cramling (Sweden)

Anna-Maja Kazarian (Netherlands)

Antonio Radic (Croatia)

Ayelen Martinez (Argentina)

Carlos Matamoros (Ecuador)

Daniel King (UK)

Daniel Naroditsky (USA)

Eric Rosen (USA)

Fiona Steil Antoni (Luxemburg)

Jesse February (South Africa)

Maria Emelianova (Russia)

Michael Rahal (Spain)

Sagar Shah & Amruta Mokal (India)

Simon Williams (UK)

Do you have a favorite game from the Olympiad? We invite you to post the critical position from a favorite game on social media, tagging FIDE and/or using the hashtag #ChessOlympiad. We will make sure that the judges take your suggestions into account.

https://www.fide.com/news/722

[Hans Jung]

So - Grischuk

[Wayne Komer]

FIDE Online Olympiad 2020

September 3, 2020


The Armenian Chess Federation has written to FIDE (the document is on Facebook):

Letter of RA Minister of Education, Science, Culture and
Sports to FIDE President.

I want to be assured that FIDE will provide explanation to the participants of this tournament and chess community at large on this incident and undertake all consistent steps (including even restarting the event from Armenia-India team’s match stage)

TO MR. ARKADY DVORKOVICH
FIDE PRESIDENT

Dear Mr. President,

I am writing to you to express my concern and disappointment about FIDE’s recent decisions towards National chess team of Armenia and chess family as a whole.

In particular, in case of Armenia, while declining Armenia’s appeal, FIDE came with following argument:

“…the quality of the Internet connection is the responsibility of the player, including its reliability and stability. The practice of applying this point during the Olympiad has been already established in previous incidents. In the current situation, any other decision would be inconsistent with the tournament regulations, creating a precedent that could lead to further conflicting situations.”

Despite the fact that Armenian Chess Federation provided a thorough explanation and also raised some questions, FIDE decided not to consider them.

Unfortunately, the situation and problems continued further and in the final FIDE did not follow its own precedent and in the similar case of India, the games, were considered by FIDE as underplayed while in case of Armenia our player lost on time. As a result, FIDE come with unprecedented decision to announce champion both Russia and India.

We think that this is unfair and not consistent approach and decision that doesn’t ensure equal treatment of member countries which is a cornerstone of FIDE as an international institution.

I am confident that in its long way of establishment and in its core mission FIDE tries to raise the trust and confidence towards the tournaments. That trust is being built through securing equal terms of competition among all competing teams so that they all share that they are treated equally. Recent events, however, show that this is not the case with the National Chess team of Armenia feeling being discriminated against. I want to be assured that FIDE will provide explanation to the participants of this tournament and chess community at large on this incident and undertake all consistent steps (including even restarting the event from Armenia-India team’s match stage). We hope that such kind of trust building initiatives will prevent similar incidents in the future and also will unify the chess world.

Should you deem necessary, it would be our pleasure to be part of the dialogue for resolving this misunderstanding.

Making use of this opportunity, I want to express my compliments to you and FIDE.

Sincerely,

ARAYIK HARUTYUNYAN

Posted by John Swain on the EC Forum:

https://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic...c5d935#p251359

[Wayne Komer]

FIDE Online Olympiad 2020

September 4, 2020

Alexei Shirov wins Gazprom Brilliancy Prize

Alexei Shirov has been proclaimed the winner of the Gazprom Brilliancy Prize, a special trophy awarded by the General Partner of the Online Chess Olympiad.

The game that earned Shirov this prize was his victory with the Black pieces against Danyyil Dvirnyy, in the match Spain - Italy that took place in the Pool C of Division 2. The game was a Slav Defense in which Alexei came up with a novelty relatively early in the game, 14…Qb8 instead of the queen's exchange proposal that implies the most common continuation 14…Qb6. Shirov's attack on the Queenside progressed much faster than Danyyil's advances on the Kingside, and the Spaniard achieved a crushing victory in just 29 moves with an elegant checkmate thread following a Queen sacrifice.

This isn't the first brilliancy prize in Shirov's career, and for sure it won't be the last. The Spaniard remains one of the most popular players among chess fans on account of his uncompromising style and fighting spirit, and he is always willing to jump into the sharpest possible continuation that the position has to offer. During the Online Olympiad, Alexei demonstrated to be in very good shape, and this is just one of the dozen victories he scored with the Spanish team. He totaled 13 points in 15 games, with just 1 defeat and 2 draws.

FIDE had invited a panel of 14 popular Streamers and YouTubers to be the judges for the Gazprom Brilliancy Prize, asking them to give 3 points to their favorite game, 2 to their second favorite, and 1 to the third. Ten out of the fourteen judges picked Shirov's game as their top choice, announcing their votes in their respective channels.

Final results:

Dvirnyy - Shirov, 33 points
Kapitanchuk - Kozak, 18 points
Anand - Maghsoodloo, 10 points
Noritsyn - So, 10 points
Pavlidis - Ftacnik, 4 points
Salman - Aziz, 4 points
Xiong - Esipenko, 3 points
Gunina - Gara, 1 point
Zabi - Napoleao, 1 point

These are the votes, judge by judge, and the links to their respective videos:

Anna Cramling (Sweden) https://www.twitch.tv/videos/730184512
3 points: Dvirnyy - Shirov
2 points: Noritsyn - So
1 point: Kapitanchuk - Kozak

Anna-Maja Kazarian (Netherlands) https://www.twitch.tv/videos/727936451
3 points: Noritsyn - So
2 points: Salman - Aziz
1 point: Zaibi - Napoleao

Antonio Radic (Croatia) https://youtu.be/3kNznwra7yg
3 points: Dvirnyy - Shirov
2 points: Pavlidis - Ftacnik
1 point: Kapitanchuk - Kozak

Ayelen Martinez (Argentina) https://www.twitch.tv/videos/730094968
3 points: Anand - Maghsoodloo
2 points: Noritsyn - So
1 point: Kapitanchuk - Kozak

Carlos Matamoros (Ecuador) https://www.twitch.tv/videos/729181975
3 points: Dvirnyy - Shirov
2 points: Anand - Maghsoodloo
1 point: Noritsyn - So

Daniel King (UK) https://www.youtube.com/user/PowerPlayChess
3 points: Dvirnyy - Shirov
2 points: Anand - Maghsoodloo
1 point: Noritsyn - So

Daniel Naroditsky (USA) https://www.twitch.tv/videos/730761731
3 points: Dvirnyy - Shirov
2 points: Kapitanchuk - Kozak
1 point: Xiong - Esipenko

Eric Rosen (USA) https://www.twitch.tv/videos/730665604
3 points: Dvirnyy - Shirov
2 points: Anand - Maghsoodloo
1 point: Noritsyn - So

Fiona Steil Antoni (Luxemburg) https://www.twitch.tv/videos/727205369
3 points: Dvirnyy - Shirov
2 points: Kapitanchuk - Kozak
1 point: Salman - Aziz

Jesse February (South Africa) https://www.twitch.tv/videos/727913527
3 points: Kapitanchuk - Kozak
2 points: Xiong - Esipenko
1 point: Dvirnyy - Shirov

Maria Emelianova (Russia) https://www.twitch.tv/videos/730030600
3 points: Dvirnyy - Shirov
2 points: Pavlidis - Ftacnik
1 point: Anand - Maghsoodloo

Michael Rahal (Spain) https://youtu.be/WP1GSRgtB3s
3 points: Kapitanchuk - Kozak
2 points: Dvirnyy - Shirov
1 point: Salman - Aziz

Sagar Shah & Amruta Mokal (India) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzJPLw4AoFM
3 points: Dvirnyy vs Shirov
2 points: Vidit - Nepomniachtich
1 point: Kapitanchuk - Kozak

Simon Williams (UK) https://youtu.be/CVRrQ_1N06s
3 points: Dvirnyy - Shirov
2 points: Kapitanchuk - Kozak
1 point: Gunina - Ticia Gara
__________

FIDE Online Olympiad 2020
Division 2, Pool C
Italy - Spain
Round 4, August 15
Dvirnyy, Danyyil – Shirov, Alexey
D12 QGD Slav, Schallopp Defense

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bf5 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nh4 Be4 7.f3 Bg6 8.Qb3 Qc7 9.Bd2 Be7 10.Nxg6 hxg6 11.O-O-O Nbd7 12.cxd5 cxd5 13.Kb1 a6 14.Rc1 Qb8 15.h4 b5 16.a4 O-O 17.a5 Rc8 18.Bd3 Qg3 19.Rcg1 Rc4 20.f4 Rac8 21.Qd1 b4 22.Ne2 Qg4 23.Nc1 Ne4 24.Be2 Qf5 25.Bd3 Ndf6 26.g4 Nxg4 27.Rxg4 Qxg4 28.Qxg4 Nxd2+ 29.Ka1 Rxc1+ 0-1

Position after Black’s 25…Ndf6



Chessgames comments

- Incredible double queen sacrifice

- A Shirov masterpiece. If White accepts the initial Q offer with 24.Qxg4 then the main line is 24...Nxd2+ 25.Ka1 b3 26.Bb1 Ra4+ 27.Na2 bxa2 28.Bxa2 Nc5!! with the point that after 29.dxc5 Rxc5 there is no good defence to 30...Rxa2+ and Rxa5 and mate, as moving the b-pawn allows Bf6 mate. And if 29.b4 Ncb3+ 30.Kb2 Rxb4 and White's pile of major pieces way over on the K-side are helpless to prevent mate.

- You need artistic intuition for this kind of play. This is another level of the art of chess.

- This is my pick for game of the year. the line Luzhin identified with that absolutely stunning Nc5!! idea... to see that at the beginning of the queen sac combination is, well, Shirovian.

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2006996

[Wayne Komer]

FIDE Online Olympiad 2020

September 5, 2020

Runners-up in the Brilliancy Prize Awards

Division 2, Pool E
Round 3, August 14
Argentina – Hungary
Kapitanchuk, Tomas – Kozak, Adam
C54 Giuoco Piano

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d3 d6 6.O-O a5 7.a4 h6 8.Na3 O-O 9.Nc2 Be6 10.Bxe6 fxe6 11.Be3 Bxe3 12.Nxe3 Qe8 13.Qb3 Rb8 14.Qc4 Nh5 15.d4 Rxf3 16.gxf3 Nf4 17.d5 Qh5 18.dxc6 Qxf3 19.h4 b5 20.Qb3 Rf8 21.Qd1 Ne2+ 22.Kh2 Rf4 23.Ng2 Rg4 24.Rg1 Qxg2+ 25.Rxg2 Rxh4# 0-1

Final Position



Division 1, Pool A
Round 5, August 22
India – Iran
Anand, Vishy – Maghsoodloo, Parham
B32 Sicilian, Labourdonnais-Loewenthal variation

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e5 5.Nb5 d6 6.c4 Be6 7.N1c3 a6 8.Na3 g6 9.Nc2 Bg7 10.Be3 Nf6 11.Be2 Rc8 12.b3 O-O 13.O-O b5 14.cxb5 Ne7 15.Bd2 axb5 16.Bxb5 Qb6 17.Na3 Rxc3 18.Bxc3 Nxe4 19.Bb2 d5 20.Be2 d4 21.Nc4 Bxc4 22.Bxc4 Nd6 23.Ba3 Nef5 24.Rc1 e4 25.Bc5 Qd8 26.Re1 Re8 27.b4 Nxc4 28.Rxc4 e3 29.fxe3 Nxe3 30.Qa4 Re6 31.Rcc1 Qd5 32.Re2 d3 33.Rd2 Bd4 34.Kh1 Nxg2 35.Qb3 Qa8 0-1

Division 1, Pool D
Round 9, August 23
Canada – USA
Noritsyn, Nikolay – So, Wesley
A01 Nimzowitsch-Larsen Attack, Modern variation

1.b3 e5 2.Bb2 Nc6 3.e3 d5 4.Bb5 Bd6 5.Nf3 f6 6.c4 a6 7.Bxc6+ bxc6 8.d4 e4 9.Ng1 a5 10.Nc3 Bb4 11.Ne2 Ne7 12.O-O O-O 13.Na4 Ng6 14.c5 Nh4 15.Ng3 f5 16.a3 f4 17.exf4 Bd2 18.Qxd2 Bh3 19.f3 Bxg2 20.fxe4 dxe4 21.Rf2 Nf3+ 22.Rxf3 Bxf3 23.Nc3 Rxf4 24.Re1 Qh4 25.d5 Rg4 26.Ne2 Qh3 27.Nf4 Rxf4 28.d6 cxd6 29.cxd6 Rf7 30.Be5 h5 0-1

Division 2, Pool B
Round 5, August 15
Greece - Slovakia
Pavlidis, Antonios – Ftacnik, Lubomir
B07 Pirc Defense

1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.g3 Bg7 5.Bg2 O-O 6.Nge2 Nbd7 7.O-O c5 8.d5 Rb8 9.a4 b6 10.Nb5 Rb7 11.c4 a6 12.Nbc3 Ne8 13.f4 Nc7 14.Qd3 b5 15.axb5 axb5 16.cxb5 Nb6 17.Kh1 Bd7 18.e5 Bf5 19.Qf3 Nc8 20.e6 Nxb5 21.Nxb5 Rxb5 22.g4 Bc2 23.Nc3 Rb4 24.Qe2 Bb3 25.exf7+ Rxf7 26.Qe6 Nb6 27.f5 Bc2 28.Qe2 Bb3 29.Qe6 Bc2 30.Be4 Bxe4+ 31.Nxe4 Qc8 32.Ra8 Qxa8 33.fxg6 hxg6 34.Qxf7+ Kh8 35.Rf3 1-0

Base Division, Pool B
Round 1, July 25
Lebanon - Gambia
Salman, Samer – Aziz, Matthew Luke
C41 Philidor Defense, Improved Hanham variation

1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nbd7 4.Nf3 e5 5.dxe5 dxe5 6.Bc4 Bb4 7.O-O Bxc3 8.bxc3 c6 9.Re1 h6 10.Ba3 b5 11.Bb3 a5 12.Qd6 Bb7 13.Nxe5 Rf8 14.Qxf8+ Nxf8 15.Bxf7# 1-0

Knockout
Round 3, August 29
USA – Russia
Xiong, Jeffery – Esipenko, Andrey
E32 Nimzo-Indian, Classical variation

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 O-O 5.e4 d5 6.e5 Ne4 7.Bd3 c5 8.Nf3 cxd4 9.Nxd4 Nd7 10.Bf4 Qh4 11.g3 Qh5 12.h4 Nxe5 13.Be2 Ng4 14.Bxg4 Qxg4 15.f3 Qh5 16.g4 Qg6 17.fxe4 e5 18.O-O-O Bxc3 19.Nf5 Bxf5 20.gxf5 Qa6 21.Qxc3 d4 22.Qb3 exf4 23.Rxd4 Rad8 24.Qd3 Rxd4 25.Qxd4 Rc8 26.b3 Qxa2 27.Rd1 g6 28.f6 h5 29.Rd3 Qg2 30.Qd7 Rf8 31.Qe7 Qg1+ 32.Kc2 Qb6 33.Rd6 Qa5 34.Rd5 Qb6 35.Rd6 Qa5 36.Rd5 Qb6 37.Rg5 Qf2+ 38.Kb1 Qe1+ 39.Ka2 Qd2+ 40.Ka3 Qc1+ 41.Ka4 Qa1+ 42.Kb4 Qe1+ 43.Kb5 a6+ 44.Kb6 Qe3+ 45.Kc7 Qc3 46.Rxg6+ Kh7 47.Rg7+ Kh6 48.Qxf8 Qe5+ 49.Qd6 1-0

Quarter Finals
Round 2, August 28
Russia - Hungary
Gunina, Valentina – Gara, Ticia
E00 Queen’s Pawn game

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 a5 5.Bg2 O-O 6.Nf3 b6 7.O-O Bb7 8.Bf4 Be7 9.Nc3 Ne4 10.Qc2 Nxc3 11.Qxc3 d6 12.Rfe1 Nd7 13.a3 Be4 14.Rad1 a4 15.Bf1 g5 16.Bc1 f5 17.Nd2 Bb7 18.e4 f4 19.e5 dxe5 20.Bh3 Rf6 21.dxe5 Rh6 22.Bg4 fxg3 23.Qxg3 Nc5 24.Nf3 Qe8 25.h4 gxh4 26.Qf4 Rg6 27.Kh2 Qf8 28.Rg1 Qxf4+ 29.Bxf4 Rf8 30.Rd4 Kh8 31.Bh5 Rxg1 32.Nxg1 Nb3 33.Rd7 Rxf4 34.Rxe7 Rxf2+ 35.Kh3 Nd4 36.Rxc7 Be4 37.Kxh4 Rg2 38.Bf7 Rxg1 39.Rc8+ Kg7 0-1

Division 3, Pool D
Round 3, August 7
Zaibi, Amir – Napoleao, Lourenco
Tunisia – Mozambique
A22 English Opening

1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.e3 Nc6 4.a3 d5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.Qc2 Be7 7.Nf3 O-O 8.Nxd5 Qxd5 9.Bc4 Qd8 10.b4 Kh8 11.Bb2 f6 12.h4 Bg4 13.h5 Bxf3 14.gxf3 h6 15.Qf5 Qc8 16.Be6 Qe8 17.Bd7 Qf7 18.Be6 Qe8 19.Rg1 g5 20.hxg6 Kg7 21.Bf7 Qd8 22.f4 exf4 23.Qxf4 Bd6 24.Qh4 Ne5 25.Bxe5 Bxe5 26.f4 Bxa1 27.Qxh6+ 1-0

Finding these games through the odd structure of this tournament was just like pulling teeth!