Drayton records first win for Guyana at Chess Olympiad

FIDE master Anthony Drayton created one of the biggest upsets of the first-round Open division he recorded his win against Andorra’s Jordi Fluvia in the first round of the 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Chennai, India.

A release from the Guyana Chess Federation indicated, Drayton, rated at 1928, was elated over the victory noting, that it was the highest rated opponent he defeated as Fluvia with a rating of 2451, an International Master, which is just below the title of grandmaster.

Guyana ranked 152 out of 188 teams while Andorra is ranked 58th in the Open tournament and this victory for FM Anthony Drayton will improve his ratings.

The win for Drayton resulted in Guyana moving to 98th in the standings after the first round.

The Guyana Open team was unsuccessful during their face-off with their highly-rated Andorra counterparts losing the match (1-3).

The Guyana Women’s team also lost against Mexico (0-4) which is ranked 54th in the world out of 150 participating countries.

Guyana’s players will have more chances to rack up points on July 30 when Round two commences and the Open team players consisting of Taffin Khan, Anthony Drayton, Roberto Neto and Ethan Lee will face off against Nicaragua while the Women’s team – Pooja Lam, Sasha Shariff, Nellisha Johnson, and Jessica Callender – face Hong Kong.

The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move one.

The games are played using the Swiss system and consist of 11 rounds using electronic clocks and boards.