September 15, 2021
by Marriane Solante
FIDE ONLINE OLYMPIAD 2021
FIDE Online Olympiad is held on August 20th and September 15th, 2021. Each participating team has a member of 6 players and there are two stages in the game. The Division Stage, where all participants are to be divided into 4 divisions, and the Play-off stage wherein 8 teams that were chosen to be qualified from the Division Stage are going to play.
The PH team qualified in Division 2 – Pool A, which was against the Indonesia chess team. Although Indonesia was taking the lead with an 11/12 score, the Philippines is only one match point (10/12) from them, and will not be decided who will advance to the top division until the next day.
DIVISION 2 – POOL A DAY 3
The Philippines and Indonesia tied during day 3 with a standing of 16/18 however, Indonesia was able to defeat the Philippines with their board points which were 40,5 against 39,5, and during the individual matches, they scored 4,5 while the Philippines scored 1,5.
Before the PH team could advance to the Top Division for the 2021 Fide World Chess Olympiad, they were disqualified after the fair play team caught one of the members violating the regulations by engine use, according to Joey Villar from Philippine Star. They were replaced by Australia in the Top Division instead. It would have been the Philippines ’ first time as a second place to enter the top division. All members of the PH Chess Team were banned from competing in the next round.
National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) chief operating officer and delegation head, Grandmaster Jayson Gonzales sought an appeal to the FIDE after receiving an email that they were disqualified from moving to the next round. In his letter, he justified that the other players should be allowed to proceed to the next round, as only one of the members cheated.
“Tinignan naman nila ‘yung Board 1 hanggang Board 11, cannot find any inappropriate or any misconduct. Since siya lang ang violator, why suffer the whole team?” said Jayson Gonzales.
The Fair Play Panel’s measurement for a cheating incident is as follows:
6.6. Based upon the results of the anti-cheating algorithm and/or other evidence deemed sufficient by the FPP to establish a cheating incident, FPP has the right to disqualify any player for a suspected fair-play violation during the course or after the conclusion of the tournament. FPP may additionally take one or several of the following decisions towards the disqualified player: – The disqualified player may be declared lost in one or several games he/she played in the current or/and previous pool(s) or duel(s). Then, his/her teams’ results in the respective pool(s) or duel(s) are changed accordingly; – The disqualified player’s team may be fined by a certain number of match points in the current pool or duel; – The disqualified player’s team may be disqualified (if such a decision is taken when this team has advanced to another pool or duel and started playing there, the disqualified team cannot be replaced by any other). All the results of the disqualified team ONLINE are annulled.
However, FIDE denied the appeal of NCFP to reconsider and let the other players compete.