Guyana’s national chess captain Loris Nathoo said he is quite pleased with Guyana’s showing at the just concluded 2020 FIDE Online Olympiad.
The Guyanese contingent competed in division four – Pool E – alongside nine other contesting teams and placed sixth in that category when the curtains came down Sunday evening.
“It was a praiseworthy performance given that we were placed in the same pool with some of the powerhouses in the region,” said Nathoo.
“In our pool, we had Nicaragua, Honduras, Jamaica, and Trinidad & Tobago so our pool had those four teams and it was tough ask to start with but we performed quite commendably,” Nathoo told Stabroek Sport.
He explained that the locals won three matches, drew two but lost to the four top teams. However, the Guyanese finished on eight points along with Aruba but were placed behind them as a result of the tie-break calculation and so they ended the tournament in sixth place.
Quizzed about the experience of playing via the online format, a first in many regards due to the ongoing global pandemic, Nathoo said it was a tough experience and one that will take some getting used to.
“This has been the first online tournament that I think has been held with all the nations. It was the first Olympiad so to speak and the time it was announced for the tournament to start was just about a month, so really, we didn’t get much time to prepare and there were some challenges in terms of connection issues and in addition there were other requirements to prevent cheating like getting cameras. There some other technological challenges but we managed to overcome those.”
Guyana’s top performer was Candidate Master Wendell Meusa who won all six of his games. His performance was described as brilliant.
“Quite brilliantly, we have to mention him. He deserved special mention,” the Guyanese leader said.
Other top performers were Ethan Lee who won three of four games and Jessica Callender who won two out of three games.
The Guyana Chess Federation is now set to host frequent online tournaments to better prepare the locals for future international online events.
