The four-member chess teams from Suriname and French Guiana arrived yesterday for the Inter-Guiana Games (IGG) which is expected to begin today and run until Sunday.
The Suriname team comprises participants Rosangela Dos Ramos, Ekaterina Naipal, Gavin Ooft and Viresh Giasi, alongside Cuban trainer Nestor Betancourt.
For French Guiana the participants will be Arthur Godart, Karl Merzi, Norman Tjon and Pol-Louis Berteaud, and they are accompanied by Coach Michael Boualit.
According to Karen Pilgrim, General Manager of the IGG, the two teams will come up against five players from Guyana, namely Cecil Cox, Sue-Hai Feng, Taffin and Crystal Khan, and junior chess champion Ron Motilall.
Speaking with Stabroek Sport, Ooft said that his team is looking forward to a very good tournament and intends to preserve their winning status. They won the earlier segment of the Games in French Guiana in March this year, and also won last year’s event.
“We won both times, we won last year and we won in March so we expect to give it our best shot this time. We never underestimate our opponent but we expect to do really well,” Ooft said.
Meanwhile, Boualit said that his team is confident going into the Games despite not being as strong as it could be as the two strongest players are off in Europe.