Guyana raises chess profile with creditable performance at Olympiad
The Guyana chess team which participated in the 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai, India, returned home last week after some enhanced performances during 11 rounds of sustained play.
Leading the charge on Guyana’s behalf was Anthony Drayton, who, as early as the first round, defeated accredited International Master Jordi Fluvia Poyatos of Andorra. Poyatos (2461) was almost at the level of a grandmaster and Drayton should have been intimidated. But he went on to emerge victorious and score the full point. Drayton accumulated 5.5 points from a total of nine games, winning more than he lost. This was a polished result, taking into consideration the level of competition the Guyanese players encountered.
Taffin Khan played Board One for Guyana in the absence of Wendell Meusa. He accumulated a total of 4.5 points from 11 games, second to Drayton. Loris Nathoo and Ethan Lee got three points each from a reduced number of games and Roberto Neto finished with 2.5 points. Those were the five players who represented Guyana in the Open Category. Guyana moved up from 152 to 148, and defeated Seychelles, Gabon, Brunei and Burundi. A total of 162 teams participated in the Chennai Olympiad. Guyana is ranked fifth among the Englishspeaking Caribbean chess teams.
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The women players were successful in improving their FIDE rank 16 places from 136 to 120 to enable them to be more competitive. This team was led by 14-year-old Pooja Lam and included 12-year-old deaf player Anaya Lall. In the final round against Libya, Lall outplayed Woman FIDE Master (WFM) Khuloud El Flow (1836), to earn her first FIDE international rating. Jessica Callender was also most impressive against her Libyan counterpart beating WFM Khadija Elfelo (1875). Lam and Sasha Shariff also gained victories over their Libyan opponents. The Guyana women defeated teams from Laos, Central African Republic, Timor-Leste and Libya, thereby guaranteeing their rise up the steep FIDE chess ladder.
Overall, Uzbekistan won the coveted gold medal in the Open and Ukraine took the gold in the Women’s category.