The national chess team failed to make it three wins in a row when they were beaten by Nigeria 1-3 yesterday as play in the 41st World Chess championships continued in Tromso, Norway.
Drayton, 1828, playing with the white pieces defeated the much higher ranked International Master Bunmi Olape, whose ranking is 2273. The game lasted 33 moves.
At the time the game ended Drayton had a Queen, two rooks and three pawns to his opponent’s two rooks, a dark squared bishop and four pawns.
Like Drayton, Ronuel Greenidge, 1630, entered yesterday’s match with consecutive wins under his belt but unlike Drayton he was unable to overcome the disadvantage of playing against a higher ranked opponent and with the black pieces to boot losing to Candidate Master Bomo Kigigha, 2197, in 34 moves.
Greenidge resigned with checkmate two or three moves away depending on where he moved his king which was being checked by his opponent’s rook on e7.
Haifeng Su had the advantage of the white pieces in his game against FIDE Master Patrick Olamide Ajibowo but like Greenidge found the handicap of playing a much higher rated player difficult to overcome.
Su with a ranking of 1724 lost after 37 moves with only 33 seconds on his clock remaining. Su had two rooks and two pawns to his opponent’s rook, knight and five pawns but time trouble led to his downfall.
On Board four Maria Varona Thomas lost to another Candidate Master in Oluwafemi Balogun in 39 moves.
Thomas with a 1777 ranking like her teammates found the play of Balogun too strong and resigned a few moves from checkmate with only six minutes and 30 seconds remaining on her clock.
The average team rating for the Guyana team was 1740 compared to 2206 for Nigeria.
