The Guyana women’s chess team lost their opening match against Singapore as the 42nd Chess Olympiad got underway in Baku, Azerbaijan yesterday following Friday’s opening ceremony.
The Guyanese women team lost the match 0-4 with Maria Varona-Thomas (black pieces) losing to Qianyan Gong, Jessica Clementson losing to Ruiqi Tin, Yolander Persaud losing to Emmanuelle Mei-En Hng and Sheriffa Ali losing to Kai Xin Siew.
The team later lost to Wales by 3-12 points to half a point with only Varona Thomas earning a draw.
Varona Thomas rated 1775, drew with Olivia Smith rating 2002 on board one but saw Clementson losing to Imogen AL Camp, Persaud losing to Shayanna Sivarajasingam and Julia Clementson going under to Venetia Sivarajasingam.
The team was down to play Tanzania yesterday.
Meanwhile the Guyana men’s team also lost their opening match to the Republic of Macedonia 0-4 with Anthony Drayton losing to Grandmaster Trajko Nedev, Taffin Khan going under to International Master F. Pancevski, Ronuel Greenidge losing to Grandmaster A. Colovic and Haifeng Su losing to Toni Lazov.