India reached the semifinals of the online Chess Olympiad in controversial circumstances on Friday. It had won the first of the two matches against Armenia, which didn’t play the second and withdrew from the competition.
The Armenians protested with FIDE claiming that it lost one of game because of loss of internet connection on Chess.com ’s end.
They argued that the internet connection was fine on their side and the game between Nihal Sarin and Haik Martirosyan should be replayed from the position in which the Armenian had lost on time. The Indian non-playing captain N. Srinath was asked by FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich about India’s stand.
Srinath’s firm stand
“I said that they could investigate the internet issue but we could not wait indefinitely for the second match to start as it would be unfair to our players,” Srinath told The Hindu over phone from Chennai. “Then some two hours later, I was told that Armenia withdrew.”
He said it wasn’t the way India wanted to reach the semifinals. “But we are still delighted that we are through,” he said. “We should not forget that Nihal was slightly better in the final position, and Martirosyan needed accurate moves — that too in severe time pressure — to force a draw.”
In the other games, Viswanathan Anand drew with Levon Aronian, Gujrathi defeated Gabriel Sargissian, Koneru Humpy lost to Elina Danielian, Dronavalli Harika beat Lilit Mkrtchian and Vantika Agrawal went down to Anna Sargsyan.
