The International Chess Federation is pleased to announce a new major competition: the FIDE Online Olympiad 2020, to be held between July 25nd and August 30th, 2020.
The Online Olympiad is a national teams event in which all federations affiliated to FIDE have the right to participate.
Each team will consist of six players, in a mixed format with a minimum of three female players and two junior players.
Specifically, each team must include:
- at least 1 player U-20 (born in 2000 or later)
- at least 2 women
- at least 1 girl U-20 (born in 2000 or later)
The teams may have up to six reserves, plus a team captain.
The time control for this event will be 15 minutes + 5 seconds increment per move.
The event will consist of two main stages: the “Divisions stage”, and the Play-offs stage, from Round of 16 to the final.
Since the Online Olympiad is a mixed event, for pairing purposes the ranking will be established in accordance with the final standings of the last “Gaprindashvili Cup”, which combines the results in the open and women’s sections at the Batumi Chess Olympiad 2018.
FIRST STAGE: Divisions
Base Division’s tournament system depends on the number of participating teams.
The top twelve teams of the Base Division qualify to Division 4.
50 teams are divided into 5 pools (from A to E), 10 teams each, of approximately equal strength determined as the average rapid rating of six main players according to July FRL (hereinafter referred to as “equal strength”). Each pool plays a round robin of 9 rounds.
The top three teams of each pool qualify for Division 3.
50 teams are divided into 5 pools (from A to E), 10 teams each, of approximately equal strength. Teams qualified from the same pool of Division 4 are preferably placed in different pools. Pool winners of Division 4 cannot be placed in the same pool. Each pool plays a round robin of 9 rounds.
The top three first teams of each pool qualify for Division 2.
50 teams are divided into 5 pools (from A to E), 10 teams each, of approximately equal strength. Teams qualified from the same pool of Division 3 are preferably placed in different pools. Pool winners of Division 3 cannot be placed in the same pool. Each pool plays a round robin of 9 rounds.
The top three first teams of each pool qualify for Top Division.
40 teams are divided into 4 pools (from A to D), 10 teams each, of approximately equal strength. Teams qualified from the same pool of Division 2 are preferably placed in different pools. Each pool plays a round robin of 9 rounds.
The top three first teams of each pool qualify for Stage 2 – Play-off.
SECOND STAGE: Play-off
Chief arbiter - Alex Holowczak (ENG)
Deputy chief arbiter - Sabrina de San Vicente (URU)
Arbiters - Nebojsa Baralic (SRB), Shohreh Bayat (IRI), Gunther van den Bergh (RSA), Jesus Garcia Valer (ESP), Yajun Han (CHN), Marika Japaridze (GEO), Stephen Kisuze (UGA), Aris Marghetis (CAN), Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh (IRI), Shaun Press (PNG), Jirina Prokopova (CZE), Oleksandr Prohorov (UKR), Omar Salama (ISL)
Appeals Committee - Arkady Dvorkovich (RUS), Michael Khodarkovsky (USA), Sava Stoisavljevic (SRB)
