The gold medal for the 44th Chess Olympiad went to India and Russia. The Olympiad happens every two years. This year was online for the first time because of coronavirus. Some games in the final came to an end when two Indian players lost their Internet connection. Officials said they had to award the gold medal to the two countries because it was fair. The Indian players lost time when their Internet connection failed.
This year's competition had teams from over 160 countries. The final was the second time teams had problems. A player from Armenia was disconnected during a match. Officials rejected his appeal so Armenia went home in protest. Officials said there were "unprecedented circumstances" in the final. They said a, "global Internet outage severely affected" two of the Indian players in the final. They added that the lost connection happened, "when the outcome of the match was still unclear".