The Guyanese contingent at the 43rd World Chess Olympiad currently ongoing in Batumi, Georgia enjoyed success in round three with the women’s team beating Togo 4-0 and the men coming out on top against Macau 2.5-1.5.
Women FIDE Master (WFM) Maria Varona-Thomas, defeated Women’s Candidate Master (WCM) Akua Kosife Essu, who is rated well below her with 1355 FIDE Rating compared to the naturalized Guyanese with 1739.
WCM Sheriffa Ali and Nellisha Johnson, the only two other rated players in the match up ensured Guyana’s perfect round beating Ivana Claudia Eyram De Souza and Sename Ave Maria Dzolgo respectively while Sasha Shariff, the unrated player on the local team earned herself a win over Ama Edoh.
The fourth round saw Guyana unable to cope with the likes of Jordan losing all four matches to higher ranked players apart from Varona-Thomas who lost to WCM Odeh Aseel with a 1647 rating.
Over in the men’s division, Guyana bounced back in round three with captain, Candidate Master (CM) Anthony Drayton and Glenford Corlette notching up wins over CM Seak Hin Leong and Weng TuIp respectively.
CM Taffin Khan, who already had a win the previous round, earned himself a draw with Tong Kuan Mak while Loris Nathoo lost to CM Joel Celis.
In the fourth round, CM Khan earned another draw, the only points coming to the Guyana men’s team in the round against FIDE Master Raymond Song who is rated at 2305 compared to Khan with 1900 points.
The female team will play Tunisia and the male team will face Oman in round five.
