So wins Sinquefield Cup

The intriguing Sinquefield Cup, the elite grandmaster chess tournament which featured seven of the world’s top 10 players has been completed, with a resounding victory for the US’s Wesley So. The most fascinating competitions remaining for 2016 are the biennial Chess Olympiad and the World Championship Chess Match.

The Chess Olympiad begins in Baku, Azerbaijan, on September 1, while the Championship Match will be contested in Manhattan in November.

Guyana is attending the Chess Olympiad, not as a contestant, but as a participant. It takes a while to be able to compete for medals at the Olympic level in chess. This sport works with the mind. It is necessary, therefore, to prepare your lines and systems theoretically beforehand for the Olympiad, than to depend on someone else at the final moment. The Olympiad is a tight, intense two-week competition. There is no time to familiarize oneself with new lines or alternate systems.

This columnist is yet to learn of an Olympic chess coach who is set to begin familiarization sessions during an Olympiad. Wendell Meusa has been appointed coach of the Guyana Olympic chess team for its sojourn to Baku; just as he was for the 2014 Tromso Olympiad in Norway. At the 2014 FIDE Umada Cup which was held here, Meusa played under the Barbadian flag. According to FIDE rules, one cannot be enlisted in an association/federation of a particular nation and represent another as it befits one’s fancy. Meusa, therefore, cannot represent Guyana at the Chess Olympiad as a player since he is a certified member of the Barbados Chess Association.

There was the recent case of Fabiano Caruana who is now ranked No 4 in the world. He was born in the US but migrated to Italy. He subsequently joined the Italian Chess Federation. Caruana expressed a desire to play for the US, but before he could do so, he had to obtain a transfer from the Italian Chess Federation and FIDE which he has since accomplished.

The 42nd Chess Olympiad takes place in Azerbaijan from September 1 to 14, and promises to be an elaborate affair. In the 2014 Olympiad, 177 teams representing 172 nations and a total number of 1570 men and women participated. The Chess Olympiad is the most important event on the chess calendar next to the World Championship. The current Olympiad gold medal champion is China, followed by Hungary and India in the men’s category. Cuba finished in 7th place in Tromso ahead of a number of recognized chess nations. It is certainly the finest chess-playing nation in the Western hemisphere next to the USA. Russia took gold in the

Gwomen’s category, followed by China and the Ukraine. uyana will gain valuable experience through participation. The team, assuredly, will play an improved brand of chess upon its return from Baku. It is unlikely that the world champion or his challenger will play in Baku, but there are still a lot of stars who can inspire the team to produce better chess. The primary aim of the Guyana team is to increase its rating points, and if possible its FIDE ranking.

Roberto Neto, 19, (left) is a member of the 2016 Guyana Olympiad chess team. A newcomer to the game, he enjoyed some robust successes by defeating the senior and junior national champions on occasion. Although he only began playing the game in 2010, Neto has been competing regularly in tournaments and has become a prominent fixture in competitions. In this photograph, he faces St Stanislaus’ student Gansham Alijohn in a recent tournament.