The 43rd World Chess Olympiad has come to an end with team Guyana finishing 133rd and 150th in the female and male divisions respectively.
It was one of their better performances at the tournament as Woman FIDE Master (WFM) Maria Varona-Thomas and Candidate Master (CM) Taffin Khan closed the tournament with wins in the 11th and final round while Anthony Drayton moved from being a Candidate Master to a FIDE Master.
In the 10th round, the Guyana women were unable to win a match against a much stronger IPCA team but in the 11th round against the Chinese Taipei team, Varona-Thomas bounced back to beat WFM Ching-An Shih while Women Candidate Master Sheriffa Ali held on for a draw against WFM Aleksandra Aleksandrova.
Varona-Thomas ended with 6.5 points, the top performer for the females.
Ali followed with 4.5 points while Nellisha Johnson and Sasha Shariff closed off their campaign with three and 1.5 points respectively. The team marked a one point improvement from the 2016 tournament, recording seven team points this outing. Meanwhile in the male division, CM Khan finished with two wins in the last two matches as Guyana defeated Ethiopia 3-1 in the 10th round but lost to Madagascar 1-3 in the final encounter.
CM Khan impressed with victory over CM Haftom Ghebremedhn Ghebrehiwet while Loris Nathoo beat Abel Mathewos Tilahun and Glenford Corlette won over Aydagnuhem Gezachew Abera in the penultimate round.
Surprisingly, Drayton, who was on a five-match win streak ended with two losses while Khan closed off with a win over Miora Andrimasoandro.
With the two late wins, CM Khan walked away with the most points for Guyana with
6.5 while Drayton earned six points, all coming from outright wins.
Corlette had 3.5 points and Nathoo 2.5 points as the males earned nine team points compared to five, the previous trip.
According to the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF), Drayton will be stepping his game up even more after obtaining his second FIDE Master (FM) Norm prior to his participation at this year Sub-Zonals 2.3.5 which was held in Kingston, Jamaica.
By accumulating six points from the first nine games he qualified for the title. CM Taffin Khan will see an improvement to his FIDE ratings later this year when FIDE publishes this information. The other players will see a small but valuable increase to their FIDE ratings as well.
The GCF further noted that unlike the men however, the women’s team will have FIDE ratings deducted from their current ratings after losing some important games to lesser rated opponents.
