Hyderabad: Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu on Monday applauded India's Chess Olympiad winning team.
India and Russia on Sunday, 30th August were announced as joint winners of the FIDE Chess Olympiad as Nihal Sarin and Divya Deshmukh lost connection to their games in the second round and had to forfeit. In a first, the Olympiad was conducted online.
Naidu mentioned about India's golden run in Chess Olympiad on the first day of monsoon session of Rajya Sabha.
It must be noted that, originally, Russia was declared as the winners, but India filed an appeal and after investigation, both India and Russia were announced as joint winners.
This was the first time that India reached the finals of the FIDE Chess Olympiad. India's best finish at the Olympiad had come in 2014 when the contingent returned with a bronze medal.
The first round of the final between India and Russia finished as 3-3 draw after all six games finished in six draws.
Russia started the match against India as favourites after having their average rating of 12 players (2519) higher than India (2419).
The second round witnessed high drama as two Indian players -- Sarin and Deshmukh -- lost connection to their games and had to forfeit, following which India filed an official appeal for a consequent investigation.
FIDE President A. Dvorkovich sat out the appeal, as he represented Russia.
IO M.Khodarkovsky (USA) and IA Sava Stoisavljevic (Serbia) were tasked with issuing a verdict. It was declared that both India and Russia will be joint winners of the competition.
