International Chess Federation FIDE organises the Online Olympiad in period from 22nd July to 30th August 2020.
National teams of all federations affiliated to FIDE have the right to participate in FIDE Online Olympiad. The event will be separated in 5 divisions ranked from “BASE DIVISION” to “TOP DIVISION” in accordance with the final standings of the Gaprindashvili Cup of the Chess Olympiad 2018.
Each team consists of six main players and possible six reserve players. The main players must includ at least 2 women players, at least one player U-20 (born in 2000 or later) and at least one girl U-20 (born in 2000 or later): A (open) – boards 1 and 2, B (women) – boards 3 and 4, C (open U-20) – board 5, D (girl U-20) – board 6.
A team that did not participate in the 2018 Chess Olympiad is placed in the BASE DIVISION, unless the FIDE President decides to take into consideration that team’s results in the Gaprindashvili Cup of the Chess Olympiad 2016 and place the team accordingly.
BASE DIVISION unifies registered teams placed in the bottom part of the final standings of the Gaprindashvili Cup. BASE DIVISION’s tournament system depends on the number of participating teams. The top fifteen teams of the BASE DIVISION qualify to DIVISION 4.
DIVISION 4 is composed of 35 seeded registered teams ranked higher than teams of BASE DIVISION in Gaprindashvili Cup and 15 teams qualified from BASE DIVISION. 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 FIDE Rating List. Each pool plays a round robin of 9 rounds. The top three teams of each pool qualify for DIVISION 3.
DIVISION 3 is composed of 35 seeded registered teams ranked higher than teams of DIVISION 4 in Gaprindashvili Cup and 15 teams qualified from DIVISION 4. 50 teams are divided into 5 pools (from A to E), 10 teams each, of approximately equal strength. Each pool plays a round robin of 9 rounds. The top three teams of each pool qualify for DIVISION 2.
DIVISION 2 is composed of 35 seeded registered teams ranked higher than teams of DIVISION 3 in Gaprindashvili Cup and 15 teams qualified from DIVISION 3. 50 teams are divided into 5 pools (from A to E), 10 teams each, of approximately equal strength. Each pool plays a round robin of 9 rounds. The top three first teams of each pool qualify for TOP DIVISION.
TOP DIVISION is composed of 5 seeded registered teams placed on the top of Gaprindashvili Cup, 5 teams nominated by each of the four Continent and 15 teams qualified from DIVISION 2. 40 teams are divided into 4 pools (from A to D), 10 teams each, of approximately equal strength. Each pool plays a round robin of 9 rounds. The top three first teams of each pool qualify for Stage 2 – PLAY-OFF.
According to regulations and the standings of Gaprindashvili Cup that is used as criterion for the whole event structure, European Chess Union decided to nominate 5 Teams for the Top Division of FIDE Online Olympiad: Armenia, Poland, France, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Top 12 teams from the stage 1 will play the Knock-out final tournament which will determine the FIDE Online Olympiad Winner.
Time control of the event will be: 15 minutes + 5 seconds increment per move, starting from move 1 .
Schedule of the event is as followed:
Each federation intending to participate in FIDE Online Olympiad confirms its participation providing the list of players with the exact main boards and reserves order in all categories to the FIDE Secretariat on the following e-mail address: office@fide.com. Registration deadline is July 13th 2020.