The Guyana team played admirably at the 2022 Chess Olympiad in Chennai, India and it’s time for some reflections.
To start the ball rolling, in the first round, Anthony Drayton vanquished his opponent who was an International Master from Andorra. Drayton was FIDE-rated close to 2000 while his opponent was rated close to 2500. It was a remarkable achievement on Drayton’s behalf.
Some 40 years ago, Gordon Broomes had outplayed an International Master from Brussels at the Olympiad. Drayton deserves a round of applause from all of us for repeating that extraordi-nary feat. From his nine games, Drayton scored 5½ points, losing three and drawing one.
Taffin Khan played Board One for Guyana. The person who plays Board One must face the best of the best on par-ticipating teams. Usually this is so, but sometimes there are some exceptions when the Board One player switches places to give another a turn on the top board. The Olympiad rules allow for this. But generally speaking, the finest chess players are cemented on the top boards of the world. Khan played his full quota of 11 games, winning three and drawing three. He lost five games.
Guyana’s opponents were all higher rated. This meant they had been engaged in more FIDE-rated tournaments than the Guyanese and had faced superior-ranked opponents on a regular basis.
Chess Game
Anaya Lall, the deaf chess player who was part of Team Guyana at the recent 44th Chess Olympiad in India, disposes of a higher ranked opponent in this game from the tournament.
White: Anaya Lall (Unrated)
Black: Khuloud El Flow (1836)
Event: 44th Chess Olympiad, 2022, Chennai, India (Women), August 9
Type of Game: Sicilian Defence (General)
1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd4 3. Qxd4 Nc6 4. Qd2 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. h3 e5 7. Bc4 Nd4 8. Nge2 Qb6
9. Nxd4 exd4 10. Nd5 Nxd5 11. Bxd5 Be6 12. Bb3 d5 13. Ba4+ Kd8 14. exd5 Bb4 15. c3 Bxd5 16. cxb4 Qe6+ 17. Kd1 Qf6 18. f3 Bxf3+ 19. gxf3 Qxf3+ 20. Kc2 Rc8+ 21. Kb1 Qxh1
22. Qxd4+ Kc7 23. Qe5+ Kd8 24. Qd6#. 1-0. Black resigns.
