Wednesday, September 15, has been circled on the calendars of many chess fans around the world, as it is the 2021 FIDE Online Olympiad’s final. Some have been hoping their favorite team would make it all the way to the last stage of the tournament, while some have just been enjoying the show and excellent commentary. 

As we know, the U.S. and Russia managed to qualify for the final, and obviously, both are among the world’s finest teams.

So, let’s dive in and learn in detail how the finals played out!

Live coverage of the finals. Watch all of the live coverage at youtube.com/chesI

In the first round, we saw some incredibly heated battles. On the first board, GM Jeffery Xiong had the white pieces against GM Daniil Dubov. The latter played what many nowadays refer to as “Dubov Tarrasch.”

The American GM somewhat adventurously decided to win a pawn on the queenside, and Dubv developed a lot of pressure against the XIong’s king and sacrificed a piece a few moves later. Xiong decided to decline the sacrifice, trade queens, and with careful play held the endgame: draw on board one.

On board two, GM Vladislav Artemiev won a great positional game versus GM Ray Robson, having snatched a pawn early on and slowly converted it. Let’s take a look at it below!

GM Awonder Liang scored a point versus GM Andrey Esipenko on board three. At times, Black was close to making a draw, but ultimately, White went on to win. As for the two female boards, equilibrium was maintained on both of them as GM Alexandra Kosteniuk drew IM Nazi Paikidze, while IM Polina Shuvalova drew WGM Thalia Cervantes.

Finally, the recent contender for the female chess crown GM Alexandra Goryachkina scored a full point with the Black pieces against GM Irina Krush, bringing the Russian team an overall victory with a score of 3.5-2.5.

The second round began with the teams exchanging a series of wins on boards 3 and 4: Liang once again outplayed Esipenko, while Kosteniuk beat Krush with an absolutely astonishing attack in what I would certainly call the game of the day… and maybe of the year!

Meanwhile, Dubov got a terrific position with White out of the opening against Xiong, won a pawn, and kept up the pressure. However, Xiong defended nearly perfectly and managed to save the game, getting a draw. So, now the score in the match became 1.5-1.5.

On board two, GM Dariusz Swiercz got a large advantage versus Artemiev and also won a pawn, but again, defense prevailed: Artemiev went on to escape and draw with the Black pieces. 2-2!

The remaining games finished shortly after: there was a draw between GM Kateryna Lagno and IM Anna Zatonskih on board five, while on the last board, WGM Leya Garifullina outplayed Cervantes.

As a result, Russia once again won the round with a score of 3.5-2.5, and won the final 2-0! Of course, Russian fans must be on cloud nine at the moment, and they have all the reasons to feel this way, as their team playing amazing chess throughout the event.

However, the American team showed fantastic chess as well—after all, it was the competition of the very best, and there could be only one winner.

Hopefully, you enjoyed the Olympiad, and we will see you soon during the next events!

ALL GAMES FROM FINAL

The FIDE Online Olympiad, a major online chess event for national teams, runs August 20-September 15 on the Chess.com server. More than 1,000 participants and 153 teams from all over the world are playing.

Each team consists of six players, including at least two women, at least one player who is 20 or younger, and at least one female player who is 20 or younger. The time control for all matches is 15 minutes for the game and a five-second increment per move, starting from move one.

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