GUYANA’S Open and Women’s teams rose in rankings after a relatively impressive performance at the just concluded 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Chennai, India.
The Women’s team led by 14-year-old Women’s Champion Pooja Lam, defeated four teams – Laos, Central African Republic, Timor-Leste and Libya – while they drew with Oman to raise their International ranking 16 places up from No. 136 to No. 120 in the world.

The Open team, made up of four male players, including Candidate Master (CM) Taffin Khan and FIDE Master (FM) Anthony Drayton, were able to move from 152 to 148 with a total of four team wins against Seychelles, Gabon, Brunei Darussalam and Burundi.

Overall, the Open Team are now ranked fifth in the Caribbean.
The quartet of players lost the final round of the tournament against Haiti 2.5-1.5. Drayton won against Jude Guillaume while Khan drew with his Haitian counterpart FM Marckens Jean Louis.

IMPRESSIVE FEMALE PERFORMANCE
In the biennial event, 12-year-old deaf player Anaya Lall was most impressive in the final round against Libya, defeating 1836 rated player WFM Khuloud El Flow. This is the highest-rated opponent young Anaya has ever defeated, which earned her her first FIDE rating.

Jessica Callender drew her final match with WFM Khadija Elfelo (1875), while Pooja Lam and Sasha Shariff also defeated their Libyan opponents, Alrais and Albudwi, respectively.
The team triumphantly placed third in the Group E category, with top players Callender and Shariff finishing on 5.5 points each from 10 games, while Lam and Lall collected three points each while Nellisha Johnson earned 1.5 points.

On the Open side, Drayton tallied the most points, 5.5 points from nine rounds. This was followed by Khan with 4.5 points from 11 games, Loris Nathoo and Ethan Lee both ended with three points and Roberto Neto with 2.5 points for Guyana.

Overall, both Open and Women’s teams finished on 18.5 points.
According to information from the Guyana Chess Federation, “It was an all-around successful tournament for the Guyana Chess Olympiad team, with increased rating points for players, improved rankings and two new Conditional WCMs in Shariff and Callender.”
The Olympiad team and their delegation were expected to arrive home today,