Georgia's first online chess championship winners unveiled amid lockdown

While the coronavirus-imposed lockdown continues to prevent in-person sporting competitions from running, the Georgian Chess Federation has unveiled winners of its first digital championship of the country.

The governing body for the sport in the country has used chess.com, the most popular online platform for the game, to host competitions involving players looking to keep indulging in their favourite hobby.

The GCF club page on the website has seen seven tournaments hosted by club members over the last three days in both blitz and rapid chess modes that involved dozens of interested competitors.

The federation also hosted the first all-Georgian digital championship via the platform, with 92 participants including 24 chess grandmasters and 23 masters.

Among participants were the country's leading players including 2020 Lausanne International Chess Federation Grand Prix winner Nana Dzagnidze, Georgian national team member Bela Khotenashvili and Nino Batsiashvili, who scored a surprising draw against world champion Magnus Carlsen at the 2015 Masters Open tournament in Qatar.

Khotenashvili finished third in the women's section, with Meri Arabidze taking the ultimate crown after drawing with Nino Khomeriki on points but having superior statistics in fixtures.

Among men, tournament favourite Nika Volkov confirmed the odds by defeating some of the strongest opponents before finishing half a point ahead of prized Baadur Jobava. Giga Kuparadez and Tornike Sanikidze ended up behind the two in the final rankings.

The online contest involved both senior and young players, with rating points also taken into account for organising the competition.