2026 Chess Olympiad: Couchman, Drayton lift Guyana Open team to final-round victory

Kyle Couchman and FIDE Master (FM) Anthony Drayton recorded victories as Guyana defeated Jersey 2½–1½ in the final round of the 46th Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Sunday, September 27. The result secured 132nd place for Guyana in the Open division, while the women finished 152nd after losing 3–1 to the Bahamas.

Couchman, playing with the black pieces on board two, defeated Paul Carpenter, while Drayton overcame Gary Clark with white on board three. Candidate Master (CM) Sachin Pitamber drew with CM Jem Gurner on the top board, completing Guyana’s winning total. Newly minted CM Keron Sandiford lost to James Auckland on board four.
The victory gave the Open team, captained by coach Aleksa Strikovic, five wins and six defeats from their 11 matches. They ended with 10 match points and 19½ board points, placing 132nd among 206 teams, five places above their starting position of 137th.
In the women’s final-round encounter, Woman Candidate Master (WCM) Sasha Shariff earned Guyana’s only point by defeating WCM Daijah Johnson with the black pieces on board three.
On board one, WCM Aditi Joshi lost to Woman FIDE Master Polina Karelina, while Kataleya Sam was beaten by WCM Nelissa Thomas on board two. WCM Jessica Callender lost to WCM Chika Pride on board four.
The women, captained by Georg Mohr, completed the tournament with four victories and seven defeats. Their eight match points and 18½ board points left them 152nd among 189 teams, six places below their starting rank.
Pitamber was among Guyana’s leading individual performers, scoring 4½ points from nine games. His campaign included a monumental draw against Cyprus Grandmaster Andreas Kelires and a victory over Jamaica’s FM Joshua Christie. He recorded the Open team’s highest performance rating of 2150, with a rating gain of 58.8 points.
Drayton also finished with 4½ points, achieved in eight games, and remained unbeaten in his final five appearances. His performance rating was 2149, with a rating gain of 28 points. Couchman contributed 4½ points from 10 games, while Sandiford scored 3½ from nine and Candidate Master Taffin Khan collected 2½ from eight.
Before beating Jersey, the Open team had defeated New Caledonia, Togo and Mali by 3–1 margins, along with a 3½–½ victory over Macau, China. Their defeats came against Slovenia, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Wales, Nigeria and Jamaica. The Jamaica encounter in the penultimate round ended 2½–1½.
For the women, Joshi and Ciel Clement shared the highest individual total with four points each, from 10 and eight games respectively. Joshi’s campaign included a victory over Andorra’s higher-rated Woman FIDE Master (WFM) Andrea Henderson de La Fuente.
Shariff finished with 3½ points from seven games, while 13-year-old Sam scored the same total from 10 and Callender from nine. Sam’s victory over Japan’s higher-rated Kanako Kinoshita was another notable individual result.
The women’s strongest team performance came in round eight when Joshi, Sam, Clement and Callender all won in a 4–0 sweep of Mali. They also defeated Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Somalia by 3½–½ margins, before beating San Marino 3–1 in round 10. Earlier losses came against Colombia, Andorra, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Laos and Guam.
Hosts Uzbekistan won the Open title ahead of India and Germany. China topped the women’s standings, followed by Kazakhstan and India, as the September 16–27 tournament concluded. (Michelangelo Jacobus)