Guyana opened the men’s blitz chess competition at the 2026 Central American and Caribbean Games with a victory and two draws, but Anthony Drayton and Taffin Khan were unable to sustain their early form during Tuesday’s 15-round event in Santo Domingo.
Drayton and Khan combined to defeat Nicaragua 1½-½ in their opening match before holding the Dominican Republic and Panama to 1-1 draws in the following two rounds.
Those results gave Guyana an unbeaten start after three rounds, but the national team lost its remaining 12 matches and ended the competition with five board points.
Venezuela handed Guyana its first defeat with a 2-0 result in round four, while Puerto Rico followed with a 1½-½ victory. Barbados, Guatemala and Jamaica then registered successive 2-0 wins over the Guyanese pair.
Guyana secured half a point against Costa Rica in round nine, but lost the match 1½-½. Trinidad and Tobago and Mexico followed with 2-0 victories before El Salvador, Cuba and Colombia also swept both boards against Guyana.
Drayton and Khan earned their final half-point of the competition against Haiti, which won the last-round encounter 1½-½.
Guyana completed the event with one victory, two draws and 12 defeats, earning four match points from its 15 encounters.
The fast-paced competition featured 16 teams and was completed in one afternoon, with the first round beginning at 1:30 p.m. and the final round starting at 5 p.m.
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