Drayton, Sam win as Guyana suffer 6th-round Olympiad defeats

Anthony Drayton and Kataleya Sam recorded individual victories, but Guyana lost both sixth-round matches at the 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Monday.
The Open team fell 3-1 to Wales, while the women suffered a narrower 2½–1½ defeat against Japan despite Sam’s win and a draw from Jessica Callender.
Both Guyanese teams enter the break with two wins and four defeats, leaving each on four match points. The competition resumes on Wednesday, September 23, when the Open team face Togo and the women meet Laos.
FIDE Master Drayton secured Guyana’s lone point against Wales on board four. Playing with the black pieces, the 2003-rated Guyanese defeated Candidate Master Alex Bullen, rated 2096.
Wales won the remaining three games. On board one, Guyana’s Candidate Master Sachin Pitamber lost with white to International Master Jose Collados.

Kyle Couchman, playing with black on board two, was beaten by Candidate Master Ifan Rathbone-Jones. Candidate Master Taffin Khan lost with white to Iwan Cave on board three.
In the women’s section, Sam overcame a 258-point rating disadvantage to defeat Japan’s Kanako Kinoshita on board two. Sam, rated 1525, played with white against her 1783-rated opponent.
Woman Candidate Master Callender added half a point on board four, drawing with white against Ami Kato. Callender entered the game rated 1552, compared with Kato’s 1755.
Japan secured the match through victories on boards one and three. Woman Candidate Master Aditi Joshi lost with black to Woman Candidate Master Azumi Sakai. Ciel Desiree Clement also played with black and was defeated by Woman Candidate Master Rikka Mitsuyama.

After six rounds, Guyana stood 148th overall in the Open competition and 150th in the women’s section. In the separate Americas Open standings, Guyana sit 28th out of 42, with two wins, no draws, and four losses.
In the Americas Women rankings, Guyana sit 30th among 41 teams.
Drayton leads Guyana’s Open individual scoring with 2½ points, followed by Pitamber and Sandiford on two each, Couchman on 1½ and Khan on one. Joshi heads the women’s scoring with three points, ahead of Clement on two, while Sam, Shariff, and Callender have 1½ each.
The Open side, captained by Aleksa Strikovic, and the women, led by Georg Mohr, have five rounds remaining in the 11-round tournament, which concludes on September 27.