45th Chess Olympiad
As the curtains came down on the 45th edition of the World Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary, the Guyanese teams (open and women’s) ended their campaigns in contrasting fashion.
The open team fell 1.5-2.5 to Sierra Leone, while the women unit chalked up what was only their third win of the competition, defeating Bermuda 2.5-1.5.
Playing in the 11th and final round, the Open quartet of Candidate Master (CM) Taffin Khan, Loris Nathoo, Keron Sandiford, and Sachin Pitamber came up against Ansumana Kamara, Mansfield Winston, Brian Beckley, and Rahman Abdul.
Khan, Guyana’s national men’s champion, suffered defeat against Kamara, while Nathoo endured a similar result to Winston. On the other hand, Sandiford fought to a draw with Beckley, while Pitamber capped a decent overall campaign with victory over Abdul. On the distaff side, Sasha Sharif, Aditi Joshi, Ciel Clement, and Treskole Archibald faced Zuzana Kovacova, Shiela Cancino, Olga Gontcharova, and Kaelyn Fleming.
Sharif was the only casualty of the round, surrendering to Kovacova while Joshi continued her excellent form with a win over Cancino. Clement defeated Gontcharova while Archibald held Fleming to a draw. The women’s team recorded three wins out of the 11 rounds and conceded six defeats while drawing twice in their campaign to finish 145th out of 183 countries, improving two places from their starting rank of 147th.
Meanwhile, the Open team yielded 18 spots, dropping to a final ranking of 174th out of 197 countries after they began ranked 156th. This occurred after ending with a record of three wins and eight defeats.
