GUYANA defeated Bermuda to finish seventh overall in their Division Four, Pool E battle of the FIDE Online Olympiad.
AFTER losing to the Netherlands Antilles and Haiti on Sunday, on the final day of their three-day event, the Guyanese players were able to bounce back to draw against Mauritania in Northwest Africa before they defeated Bermuda 4-2 to finish with 30 game points.
Puerto Rico were crowned champions of the group with 58.5 points, while Trinidad and Tobago finished second on 48 points, Haiti third on 44.5 points, Netherlands Antilles fourth, Saint Lucia fifth on 33 points, Cayman Islands sixth on 32.5 points, Bermuda eighth on 28 points, Antigua and Barbuda ninth on 27 points, Mauritania 10th on 25 points, the Bahamas 11th on 20 points and Togo (West Africa) 12th on 14.5 points.
Admirable performance

Guyana’s captain, Davion Mars, said that despite the final placement, he was impressed with the overall performance of the side.
“Seventh is obviously not the result we would’ve wanted, however, the team performed admirably individually and as a collective. “We’ve had incredible performances on the female boards from Nellisha Johnson. Shazeeda Rahim and Jessica Callender stepping up when they were called upon as well as the male junior player, Ricardo Narine.” Although the top boards had some difficult match-ups, there were several standout performers, including Mars himself.
“It was always going to be tough on the top boards but we still managed to give a good account of ourselves with individual performances against higher rated opposition. The most notable being Taffin Khan’s performance against International Master, Mark Machin of Puerto Rico.”

Candidate Master Khan, Guyana’s highest-ranked player at the Olympiad, was able to defeat the top-ranked Puerto Rican player in 29 moves during their clash. Overall, the current national champion, Khan, finished on three points (seven games) and Mars on 2.5 points from eight games.
Johnson led the side with 6.5 points from nine games (three walkover wins), while Callender finished with 4.5 points from 10 games, Rahim four points from seven games and Narine four points from 10 games.
Loris Nathoo, who claimed wins against the Netherlands Antilles and Bermuda on Sunday, finished with three points in five games, while Adia Alphonso (one game played) and Sherlyta Campayne (six games played) registered a win each. William Gilbert finished with half of a point from two games.