Guyana’s men’s team defeated Rwanda three and one half to half while the women’s team drew with Tanzania in sixth round action at the 43rd World Chess Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia yesterday.
Guyana dominated the games against Rwanda with wins from Anthony Drayton, Taffin Khan and Glenford Corlette while Loris Nathoo played to a draw.
Drayton defeated Fidele Mutabazi (1818); Khan won against Candidate Master Maxence. Murara (1789) and Corlette upset Alain Niyibizi (1756) while Nathoo drew with candidate Master Urwin Murara (1677).
According to reports, Corlette, launched an attack against his opponent’s castled King-side position. An attack by pawns on the h and g files supported by the Queen, Rook and a Knight resulted in inaccurate play from Niyibizi. Corlette then finished the game with a flourish sacking his Queen before promoting one of his two passed pawns for a new Queen.
With the threat of mate in one, his opponent resigned.
Candidate Master (CM) Khan, playing on board two with the Black pieces against Candidate Master Maxence Murara saw some inaccurate play from Murara in the London System.
Khan duly sacrificed a Bishop to create three passed pawns on the Queen side. Khan’s last tactical move, pawn to c2 forking the rook on d1 and the King on b1 helped him pull off a brilliant win.
Rising talent CM Drayton scored his second win in a row when he tactically outplayed Mutabazi in the Giuoco Piano. It was sacrifices, forks, pins and double attacks all throughout this sharp game and Drayton proved his tactical arsenal was better when he stopped his opponent from castling, prior to finishing the game with a brilliant King side attack.
Nathoo will gain some confidence from this game after he managed to obtain a draw by threefold repetition against the slightly higher rated Urwin Murara.
Meanwhile, in the women’s section, veteran national female champion Women Fide Master Maria Varona-Thomas and Women Candidate Master Sheriffa Ali secured convincing wins for Guyana.
WFM Varona-Thomas Sicilian proved to be too much for Asha Kondo who is unrated and through her pieces away. WFM Varona-Thomas accepted these gifts then ruined the castled king side to checkmate her opponent.
WCM Ali checkmated her opponent after a 59-move long e4 game. On the other hand, youngsters, Nellisha Johnson and Sasha Shariff on their first outing to an Olympiad lost both of their games.
The men team currently lie in 142 position from 24 games with six points while the women team stands at 130 with 6 points from 24 games as well. With five more rounds to go the Guyanese will be looking to finish strongly accumulating as much wins as possible.
