Armenian Chess Team Boycotts Online Olympiad and Withdraws from Further Competition

The Armenian chess team has boycotted the online Olympiad and did not participate in the second phase of the quarter-finals against India. This was announced by the chess federation in an official statement.

In the quarter-finals of the online Olympiad, the Armenian team was set to compete against India. During the match, which ended with a score of 2.5 - 2.5, a technical issue occurred on the Chess.com platform that caused the move made by Haik Martirosyan to go unregistered, resulting in a loss for him. The position at that time was entirely equal and was heading towards a draw.

The Armenian Chess Federation officially protested the decision; however, after nearly two hours of discussion, FIDE rejected the appeal, leading to the Armenian team losing the first match.

It is noteworthy that the federation's technical experts demonstrated that the Armenian team had internet access throughout the event, and Haik Martirosyan was connected to a Zoom video call. If the issue had been internet absence on our side, he would not have been in the Zoom call either. Our technical specialists also noted that the federation has two internet access lines, and if one line fails, it immediately connects to the other, changing the IP address in the process. Chess.com confirmed that there was no change in the IP address, and Haik Martirosyan always had internet access; however, for some unknown reason, their platform did not register his moves.

Without presenting any real counter-arguments to the points made by the Armenian side, FIDE rejected the appeal of the Armenian Chess Federation. Members of the Armenian team believe that the decision made is evidently unjust and, under such circumstances, our team cannot continue participating in the tournament.

The team has resolved to boycott the second match against India. The Armenian Chess Federation has requested specific data from Chess.com regarding the website's server load, but has yet to receive a response.