Guyana aims to raise chess status in Chennai
Guyana began its international chess campaign on Thursday at the Olympiad in Chennai, India, with its full ten-member squad in place.
The 188 participating teams in the Open category, and the 162 Women’s teams seeking glory for their countries are from all five continents. The USA is the clear favourite to win the Open because its team members have a 2700-plus FIDE rank, while India is tipped to win the Women's tournament.
Russia and China are non-participants at this year's Olympiad and this makes the competition weaker. Both countries have won gold no less than nine times in the past 11 Olympiads since 1998. China won the Open and Women's titles at the last face-to-face Olympiad in Batumi in 2018.
The biennial Chess Olympiad is a large, peaceful sports festival that unites nations. Guyana is an emerging chess nation, which will be concentrating on improving its status in the World Chess Federation (FIDE). Simultaneously, the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) will be examining the possibility of obtaining additional titles for our players. With this in mind, Ethan Lee and Anaya Lall in particular, the two reserve players, should concentrate deeply and play authoritatively.
The more games a player wins, the more opportunities that player will have to play. It’s a team tournament, and naturally, losers would be forgotten. An official of the GCF Loris Nathooo noted that Guyana would be aiming to improve its rank to about 120 from 188 teams in the Open section of the
tournament. However, each of the players has to
pull his/her weight. Good luck!