Guyana’s men and women’s chess teams recorded victories in yesterday’s third round of the 44th Chess Olympiad currently underway in Chennai, India.
While the men’s team eked out a two and one half to one and a half points win over Seychelles the women’s team scored a dominant 3-1 win over Laos.
In the men’s match Taffin Khan (2019), defeated the unrated Shakthi Alexander but Anthony Drayton (1928) lost his board two encounter to Andre Stratonowitsch (2142). Roberto Neto (1663) drew his encounter against Ragul Pillay (1341) leaving newcomer Ethan Lee (1515) to be the hero for his team with his defeat of the unrated Rajaganesan Ramachandran.
Against Laos, Pooja Lam (1163) on board one defeated Sihavong Sinnalone but Sasha Shariff (1183) was defeated by Maly Inthavong. Nellisa Johnson (1093) gained a walkover from Moukda Dasavong and Jessica Callender (1295) ensured the win with a defeat of Sisouk Chintanolone. All of the Laos players were unrated.
Both teams had, however, lost their second round matches by 0-4 margins.
Against Nicaragua, Khan lost to William Alfaro (2155), Drayton lost to Maximillano Rocha (2117), Neto lost to Javier Salazar (2155) and Lee lost to Jose Espinosa (2093).
Against Hong Kong, Lam lost to Sigappi Kannappan (1914), Shariff lost to Crystal Deng (1914), Johnson lost to Ching Li (1386) and Callender lost to Ting Leung (1277).
