President Ram Nath Kovind congratulates India, Russia on jointly winning FIDE Online Chess Olympiad
Aug 30, 2020
New Delhi [India], Aug 31 : President Ram Nath Kovind congratulated India and Russia on jointly winning the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad.
The President said that India was proud and delighted by their "stellar performance."
"Congratulations to the Indian Chess Team on winning the FIDE online Chess Olympiad. India is delighted by your stellar performance. We are all very proud of you. Congratulations to the Russian team too," Kovind's tweet read.
India on Sunday won its first gold medal in the Olympiad, after they were declared joint champions with Russia at the FIDE Chess Olympiad. India's best finish at the Olympiad had come in 2014 when the contingent returned with a bronze medal.
Earlier on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister Amit Shah were among those also congratulated the Indian team.
Congress leader and MP Rahul Gandhi too congratulated the Indian team for their victory through a tweet.
"Congratulations Indian team, on winning the online FIDE Chess Olympiad. You've made the country proud. Congrats to the Russian team too," Gandhi said.
India's Nihal Sarin and Divya Deshmukh lost connection to their games in the second round and had to forfeit. This was the first time that Olympiad was conducted online.
Originally, Russia was declared as the winners, but India filed an appeal and after investigation, both India and Russia were announced as joint winners.
The first round of the summit clash 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.
On Saturday, Koneru Humpy was the shining light for India as she defeated Monika Socko of Poland in the semi-finals.
