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DNA Exclusive: Internet outages, determination, backups and high team spirit – How India’s chess Olympiad gold unfolded

The Indian chess team created history by jointly winning the gold medal with Russia in the recent Olympiad but it was filled with determination and a team spirit fueled by plenty of setbacks.

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Harika Dronavalli
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For 96 years, a gold medal had eluded India. When it finally came in 2020, amidst the coronavirus pandemic, it came in the most dramatic circumstances. As if COVID19 was not enough, during the final between India and Russia, there was a global internet outage that snapped the connection and crashed the server during the India vs Russia final. India were ready with anything, from having to replay all games, to a resumption of just two to just settling for silver. In the end, FIDE decided to award the title jointly to India and Russia, creating history. “What, how, really?” These were the three words of one of the team members when she came to know about the result.

Harika Dronavalli, one of the star chess players of the Indian team, instinctively came out with those three words when the results was announced. In an exclusive chat with DNA, Harika Dronavalli outlined the journey of the Indian chess team towards gold. This is a story of internet outages, the determination of a certain veteran who came back after three years, the high team spirit and the urgent need to have a back-up.

The need for back-up

With the coronavirus situation forcing the Olympiad to be played virtually, the main necessity for the chess players in addition to immense concentration and skills, the need to adapt to online chess play was the need of the hour. For Harika Dronavalli, her plans were thrown into disarray due to the coronavirus pandemic. It did not help that one of her family members had tested positive for the coronavirus a couple of months back.

“Actually, back in March, after the initial leg of the Olympiad, I was planning to celebrate my second wedding anniversary in Russia. However, due to the pandemic, I celebrated my anniversary before Olympiad. Then I played the Olympiad and won the gold. It is funny how drastically a situation can change,” Harika Dronavalli said.

Initially, at the start, the team was plagued by internet issues and power outages which cost them matches. It was at that point in time the team realised the need for back-up options. Thus, every Grandmaster had two-three back-up options. The preparations on the chessboard were complete. Off the board, it needed help of another level. That was when Srinath Narayanan, the vice-captain sorted out the other issues.

Srinath was in constant touch with Electricity Boards in Tamil Nadu and Andhra. With the help of some IAS officers, he ensured that power supply would not be interrupted when the chess players were playing their games.

“Srinath has been the most important part of the team. He took care of things outside the board. He is always there in the team. We were playing on the board, he was playing outside the board. When things fall into place, it falls perfectly like a jigsaw puzzle,” Harika Dronavalli said.

The guts of Humpy

If there was one revelation in the team, it was Koneru Humpy. The veteran Grandmaster, who had taken a break for three years in order to raise her kid and spend time with family, has had a fantastic second coming. On her return, she won the World Rapid Championships in 2019 by the Armageddon sudden death and in the semi-final against Poland, it was her Armageddon match that helped India at least lock in on a silver medal. Harika Dronavalli lauded the efforts of Humpy and said her determination was splendid.

“We (womenfolk) can achieve anything after marriage and kids. It should just be in your mind that you can do it. Families are supportive in this time. After the break, it takes a lot of determination to be focused on what you want. You need lot of hard work. It is a very big task to be motivated before break time. She had proven herself in the Armageddon recently. It is not like who is good at it. It is about team building. She is better in this way in handling the pressure. She is more experienced. This was a conversation that we had. It is only about winning. We followed the motto that the best person should be there for the right job,” Dronavalli said.

Dramatic gold

The tournament suffered from internet outages. Armenia forfeited their game after FIDE ruled in India’s favour in the quarterfinal. In the final, a global outage forced FIDE to hand the gold medal jointly to India and Russia. On social media, there was plenty of criticism from Armenian and Russian athletes about fairplay and sympathy towards India. However, Harika Dronavalli concedes that had she not finished her game in time, then India might not have had a decision in their favour.

“Whatever happened was unfortunate. We waited patiently for FIDE’s decision. We were waiting for two hours. In the final, it was a global outage. I finished my game and I was watching. For me, the Zoom and chess.com link had stopped working. I thought it was my connection. I thought my game was over and that is why my connection is gone. After 1-2 minutes, the connection came back by itself. I then realised that two of our players had lost. I did not realise that it was for everyone. Not just for me. It is strange that this happened to me. I had 2-3 internet back-up connections and I was wondering how it was possible,” Harika Dronavalli said.

When the decision was announced, the first instinctive reaction of Harika Dronavalli was that she could not believe it. She had said that India would be happy with any decision that FIDE would give, even a silver medal would suffice. The level of low expectations and in the end which took place made Harika Dronavalli believe that “India was lucky to be on the right side of the story throughout the tournament.”

Harika Dronavalli now wants normal chess to resume after the pandemic ends. She openly stated, “I hope that I can travel to a chess tournament. It is much easier. Getting used to online chess is very hard. I sympathise with people who have to actually work from home due to the coronavirus. I have been traveling for a very long time and this period feels unreal. I hope to get back soon to traveling the world and playing chess face-to-face rather than virtually,” Harika Dronavalli said. 

 

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