The FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2021 was the second FIDE Online Chess Olympiad, an annual

online chess Online chess is chess that is played over the Internet, allowing players to play against each other. This was first done asynchronously through PLATO and email in the 1970s. In 1992, the Internet Chess Server facilitated live online play via t ...

tournament organised by the

Fédération Internationale des Échecs The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the go ...

(FIDE) since 2020, following the onset of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. It was virtually hosted by China and took place from 20 August to 15 September 2021 on

Chess.com Chess.com is an internet chess server and social networking website. One of the largest chess platforms in the world, the site operates on a freemium model in which some features are available for free, and others are available via subscription ...

's server. Russia finished first and the United States second, while China and India tied for the third place.

Background

2021 FIDE Online Olympiad Participating Teams

In July 2021, the

(FIDE) announced that the second edition of the Online Chess Olympiad will be inaugurated on 13 August and last until 15 September. National federations intending to take part in the Olympiad confirmed their participation by 31 July and were to choose their top players and juniors to send for the event. The format of the tournament is the same as the first edition, the

FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2020 The FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2020 was an online chess tournament organised by the FIDE, Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) and hosted by Chess.com. It was held between 24 July and 30 August. The event was organised after the 44th C ...

, which was created after the

44th Chess Olympiad The 44th Chess Olympiad was an international team chess event organised by the FIDE, International Chess Federation (FIDE) in Chennai, India, from 28 July to 10 August 2022. It consisted of two main tournaments—an Open event, enabling partic ...

was postponed owing to the

. The inaugural date was later revised to 20 August. China, the virtual hosts of the event, sent two teams to the tournament, one from the mainland and the other from

Shenzhen Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A Special economic zones of China, special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong ...

, both playing under the Chinese flag. The authorities of Shenzhen, including the Shenzhen Longgang District Culture and Sports Bureau, the

Shenzhen MSU-BIT University Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A Special economic zones of China, special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong ...

, Shenzhen Chess Academy and the Shenzhen Pengcheng Chess Club, sponsored the tournament. The Russian

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile co ...

company Simaland was also a partner. The tournament is broadcast live on FIDE's

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel and on Chess.com.

Participating teams

153 teams participated, divided into 4 divisions. The top two teams in each division will advance to the quarter-finals while the other teams play against each other to qualify. The

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

team withdrew from the event following the

Taliban , leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders , leader1_name = {{indented plainlist, * Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013) * Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016) * Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...

takeover of the country.

Results

Division 4

Pool A

Nepal, Lebanon and Fiji advanced to Division 3.

Pool B

Kenya, Palestine, Namibia and Malawi advanced to Division 3.

Pool C

Angola, Cyprus and Ethiopia advanced to Division 3.

Pool D

Suriname, Aruba, Ghana and Cape Verde advanced to Division 3.

Pool E

Division 3

Pool A

Malaysia, Chinese Taipei and Sri Lanka advanced to Division 2.

Pool B

Ireland, Lebanon and Iraq advanced to Division 2.

Pool C

Scotland, Angola and Wales advanced to Division 2.

Pool D

Bolivia, Uruguay and Paraguay advanced to Division 2.

Pool E

Venezuela, El Salvador and Jamaica advanced to Division 2.

Division 2

Pool A

Indonesia, Shenzhen (China) and Australia advanced to Top Division.

Pool B

Latvia, Moldova and Italy advanced to Top Division.

Pool C

Israel, Belarus and Sweden advanced to Top Division.

Pool D

Slovenia, Argentina and Brazil advanced to Top Division.

Pool E

Colombia, Cuba and Paraguay advanced to Top Division.

Top Division

Pool A

Kazakhstan and China advanced to the playoffs.

Pool B

India and Hungary advanced to the playoffs.

Pool C

Russia and Ukraine advanced to the playoffs.

Pool D

Poland and the United States advanced to the playoffs.

Playoffs

Medalists

References

External links

* {{Online chess events, state=expanded Chess Olympiads 2021 in chess Chess.com competitions