Caribbean teams find going tough at Chess Olympiad

BUDAPEST, Hungary (CMC):

Chess teams from the Caribbean faced a baptism of fire in the opening round of the 45th Chess Olympiad which got under way here on Tuesday.

In an all-Caribbean match-up, Costa Rica were the only winners in the first round of the Open section, as they conquered Antigua & Barbuda 3-1.

The 107th-ranked Jamaicans were beaten 4-0 by Spain; Barbados were blanked 4-0 by Montenegro; Guyana went down to Hungary 4-0, while Bermuda were also beaten by Paraguay by the same margin.

The Dominican Republic, the highest-rated country in the region at 94 out of 197 teams in the Open section, were blanked 4-0 by third-ranked China, while Trinidad and Tobago, who are ranked one spot below the Dominican Republic were defeated 3.5-0.5 by Uzbekistan, which is ranked fourth.

St Lucia fared a bit better, losing 3-1 to the Faroe Islands, Dominica lost 4-0 to Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan dominated Bahamas 4-0, Cayman Islands were defeated 3-1 by the United Arab Emirates, St Vincent and the Grenadines were dismissed 3.5-0.5 by South Africa and Grenada lost 4-0 to Indonesia.

In the women’s division, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica both recorded victories.

The Dominican Republic defeated the US Virgin Islands 4-0, while Costa Rica thumped St Kitts and Nevis 4-0.

Apart from that victory, Caribbean teams did not fare much better with Jamaica losing 3-5.0.5 to top ranked India, Trinidad and Tobago going down 4-0 to Armenia, Barbados went down to Switzerland 3.5-0.5, Slovakia defeated the Bahamas 4-0, and Dominica was defeated 4-0 by Algeria.