Thirteen-year-old Kataleya Sam defeated an opponent rated 258 points above her, but Guyana’s women finished half a point short of a drawn match against Japan in Round Six of the Chess Olympiad yesterday.
The 2½–1½ result in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, came as Guyana’s Open team lost 3–1 to Wales, with FIDE Master Anthony Drayton delivering its only victory. Both teams now turn their attention to the September 23 restart, when the women face Laos and the Open side takes on Togo.
Sam’s success came on board two, where the 1525-rated Guyanese used the white pieces to defeat Kanako Kinoshita, rated 1783. Woman Candidate Master Jessica Callender also earned a result against a higher-rated opponent, drawing with white against Ami Kato on board four. Their ratings were 1552 and 1755, respectively.
Those contributions kept Guyana close, but Japan’s wins on the other two boards decided the contest.
On board one, Woman Candidate Master Aditi Joshi, rated 1726, lost with black to the 1862-rated Woman Candidate Master Azumi Sakai. Ciel Clement, rated 1484, was beaten with black on board three by Woman Candidate Master Rikka Mitsuyama, rated 1752.
The result left Guyana’s women with two victories and four defeats, four match points and 150th place overall. Their earlier wins came against Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Somalia, both by 3½–½ margins.
In the Open encounter, FIDE Master Drayton defeated Candidate Master Alex Bullen with black on board four. Drayton, rated 2003, overcame a 93-point rating gap to secure Guyana’s only point against Wales.
Candidate Master Sachin Dhilan Pitamber, rated 1991, lost with white on the top board to International Master Jose Camacho Collados, rated 2358. Kyle Couchman, rated 2003, was beaten with black on board two by Candidate Master Ifan Rathbone-Jones, rated 2117.
On board three, Candidate Master Taffin Khan, rated 2005, lost with white to Iwan Cave, rated 2107. Keron Sandiford sat out the match.
Guyana’s Open team also has four match points from two wins and four losses and sits 148th overall. Its victories came against New Caledonia and Macau, China.
In the separate Americas Open standings, Guyana is 28th. The United States leads with five wins and one loss, followed by Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica and Chile, all on four wins and two defeats.
Nicaragua, Barbados, Honduras, Cayman Islands, Aruba and Puerto Rico occupy positions 22 through 27, respectively. Each has two wins, one draw and three losses, compared with Guyana’s two wins and four defeats.
Joshi remains Guyana’s leading women’s scorer with three points. Clement has two, while Sam, Callender and Shariff have 1½ each. Drayton tops the Open team with 2½ points, followed by Pitamber and Sandiford on two, Couchman on 1½ and Khan on one.
Wednesday’s seventh round begins the final five-round stretch of the tournament.
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