Guyana’s women’s team continued its impressive showing at this year’s 42nd Chess Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan when they played to a 2-2 draw with Barbados.
Wins by Maria Varona-Thomas and Sheriffa Ali on boards one and four, helped Guyana secure the draw after Jessica Clementson and Yolander Persaud lost their matches on boards two and three respectively.
Varona-Thomas defeated fellow Woman Candidate Master (WCM) Katrina Blackman although she played with the black pieces while Ali, with white, won against another WCM in Lydia Nurse.
Clementson lost to Gabriela Cumberbatch while Persaud was beaten by Segan Sandiford.
The women, with two wins, two draws and six losses next play Palestine.
Despite the return of top player Anthony Drayton the men’s team still went under to San Marino by one and a half points to two and one half.
It was the team’s seventh defeat from 10 matches.
Drayton, returned to play on board one and defeated Giancarlo Berardi while Taffin Khan drew on board two against FIDE Master Enrica Grassi. However, Haifeng Su lost to Massimiliano Maccapani and Roberto Neto to Danilo Volpinari as the male team failed to add to their two wins.
Next up for the men’s team is Lesotho.
