45th Chess Olympiad
Team Guyana’s roller coaster campaign in Budapest, Hungary continued with mixed results in the Open and Women’s category at the 45th edition of the Chess Olympiad.
Considered the chess world cup, the Men’s quartet of Candidate Master (CM) Taffin Khan, FIDE Master (FM) Anthony Drayton, Loris Nathoo and Sachin Pitamber came up against the Cayman Islands team of Chinake Kudakwashe, CM Christopher Young, Shaun Tracey and Malcolm Powell.
The Guyanese managed to scrape past their opponents 2.5 – 1.5 in the sixth round as Khan got the better of Kudakwashe. However, Drayton fell to Young but Nathoo drew with Tracy while Pitamber’s victory over Powell swayed the match up in Guyana’s favour.
The win was Guyana’s second of the competition thus far and they will be hoping to keep the momentum going when they come up against Cote de Ivoire (Ivory Coast) today.
On the distaff side of the competition, the Guyanese women suffered a 0.5 – 3.5 loss to The Bahamas. Guyana’s National Women’s Champion Jessica Callendar lost to Poline Keralina while Ciel Clement and Treskole Archibald also surrendered their games to Daijjah Johnson and Chika Pride. As is fast becoming the norm, 14-year-old Aditi Joshi, the only junior player on the female team, was the only one to show resistance, cornering Nelissa Thomas into a draw to split a point.
The Guyanese girls will now face Equatorial Guinea in their seventh round match also slated for today.
