Guyanese chess team boast high expectations for 45th Olympiad

Guyana has fielded a 10-member team for this year’s 45th World Chess Federation (FIDE) Chess Olympiad, set to run from September 10 to 23, 2024, in Budapest, Hungary.
The Guyanese team, comprising five females and five males for the Women’s and Open categories respectively, have high expectations for the biennial event; with a number of players expressing an intention to win their categories.
One such person was team leader Ronuel Greenidge, who spoke about his leadership role and his hopes of Guyana “coming back with something’.

“I haven’t been around for a while, but I still have a wealth of knowledge to assist the team in preparation, and I’m happy with their performance so far and I hope they get more insight. So, when we go there, we could actually walk away with something. You know, you don’t want to just go and participate, you want to actually go and come back with some achievement,” Greenidge explained.
He went on to add, “I don’t have an individual goal, I have a team goal. I would definitely like for the team to at least win the category. I’m not sure if we’re in the D or the E category, but I hope to win our category. So, that’s one of our goals.”
Echoing similar hopes as Greenidge was another experienced campaigner in National Champion Taffin Khan.
The back- to-back National Champion shared, “I hope we win our category prize this year, we go into the top 100 in the FIDE rankings and achieve the FM [FIDE Master] title this time. The previous time, it was half-point away. So, this time I’m hoping to get it.”
Meanwhile, women’s team member Jessica Callender spoke of their preparation, including the opportunity to train with a Women’s Grand Master.
“Preparation for the Olympiad is a combination of what I know personally I want to improve on in my own playing and also like working with the women’s team. For the women’s team, we had a chance to train with a Women’s Grand Master this year to prepare for Olympiad and then our usual coach that we will prepare with while we’re there. So, definitely working really hard,” Callender said about her preparation for the global event.
The Chess Olympiad team feature: WCM Jessica Callender, Aditi Joshi, WCM Sasha Shariff, Ciel Clement, Treskole Archibald, CM Taffin Khan, Keron Sandiford, FM Anthony Drayton, Loris Nathoo and Sachin Pitamber. (G6)