India, Russia declared joint winners of Online Chess Olympiad after server malfunction
Chennai: India and Russia were on Sunday declared joint winners of the 2020 Online Chess Olympiad after the final was marred by internet disconnection and server malfunction.
Russia were initially declared winners after two Indian players -- Nihal Sarin and Divya Deshmukh -- lost out on time in the final after suffering a disconnection with the server.
India lodged a protest against the controversial decision which was reviewed.
This was the first time FIDE, the international chess federation, was holding the Olympiad in an online format, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an official statement, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich said the global internet outage severely affected several countries, including India so a decision was made only after carefully examination.
"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," Dvorkovich said.
Legendary Indian chess player Viswananthan Anand shared his excitement by tweeting, "We are the champions !! Congrats Russia!," the wrote on his twitter handle after the final."
The first round of the final ended in a 3-3 draw with all the six games finishing in stalemate. Russia won the second round 4.5-1.5 with wins for Andrey Esipenko over Sarin and Polina Shuvalova over Deshmukh, leading to a controversy as the Indians claimed the losses were due to connection issues.
In the second round, Anand, coming in for P Harikrishna, had drawn with Ian Nepomniachtchi while captain Vidit Gujrathi drew with Daniil Dubov.
Koneru Humpy, the world rapid champion, was beaten by Alexandra Goryachkina and D Harika drew with Alexandra Kosteniuk.
In the first round matches, Gujrathi drew Nepomniachtchi, while Harikrishna and Vladimir Artemiev shared the honours.
In other matches, Humpy and Harika drew with Lagno and Kosteniuk respectively, while young prodigy R Praggnanandhaa and Deshmukh, too, held their opponents.
Reacting to the win, Humpy said, "Well it is a bit strange that we lost due to serve failure and our appeal was accepted. Well I can say, we fought till the end."
"Joint Champions Gold medal it is. First place medal Proud of my whole team #TeamIndia #ChessOlympiad," Harika tweeted after the final.
India enjoyed a great run in the tournament, beating among others the powerful Chinese team in the preliminary phase.
Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju congratulated the Indian side.
"I congratulate our Indian contingent that won the Gold at the @FIDE_chess Online Chess Olympiad. India was declared the joint winner with Russia. My heartiest wishes to all players!," he tweeted.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Jharkhand minority panel forms team to probe into mob lynching case
Jamshedpur, Jan 12: A four-member team headed by Jharkhand State Minority Commission (JSMC) chairman Hedayatullah Khan was formed to probe into the alleged mob lynching of a man in Seraikela-Kharswan district in December last year, officials said on Sunday.
JSMC has taken cognizance of the incident after All India Minority Welfare Front spokesman Sarfraz Hussain, in a letter, demanded a judicial enquiry into the alleged mob lynching of Sheikh Tazuddin in Adityapur.
"We have formed a four-member team headed by Khan on Saturday and decided to investigate the matter," a top functionary of the commission said.
The team will visit Kapali on Monday to meet the deceased's family members to get details of the incident, Khan said.
The JSMC team will also hold a meeting with senior district officials at Kapali Town Council auditorium to seek details of an action taken report in this connection, he said.
Tazuddin was seriously injured after he was allegedly beaten up by a group of unidentified persons in Sapra under the Adityapur Police Station limits on December 8 and later, he succumbed to his injuries in a hospital.
Khan said the JSMC had sought the action taken report from Seraikela-Kharswan district's superintendent of police on December 26 last year but was yet to receive any response.
SP Mukesh Kumar Lunayat had on Wednesday said the sub-divisional police officer (Seraikela) has been entrusted with the investigation and asked to submit a report, which was still underway.
However, four accused had been surrendered before a court here.
The SP had said Tazuddin died in the course of treatment in the hospital about a week after the incident.
