PRESS RELEASE 3: October 18, 2004

BARBADOS CRUSH BERMUDA 4-0

National Champion, International Master Kevin Denny, led FIDE Masters Delisle Warner and Dr. Philip Corbin, and team mate Terry Farley to a 4-0 crushing of Bermuda on day three of the 36^th World Chess Olympiad in Calvià, Spain.

Sharing insights into the team’s strategy, the Barbados Team Manager Peter Dawson, himself a former National Champion, commented that while on paper Barbados had the better rated team and were expect to beat the Bermudans, they decided not to take any chances by playing a reserve, since this was the first meeting of the two countries at an Olympiad.

In the end, the decision to stick with the Denny/Warner/Farley/Corbin quartet proved to be the correct as the 4-0 win gave the team some badly need points and a big boost to team morale.

 National Champion FIDE Master Kevin Denny of Barbados

Cuba also had a good day at the championships scoring a workman like 2 ½ - 1 ½ win over an all Grandmaster Latvian Team. Grandmaster Lzaro Bruzon (Elo 2637) won the match for the Cubans by beating Grandmaster Daneil Fridman (Elo 2578) after boards 3 to 4 ended in draws.

Despite a fine win on first board by Shane Mathews (Elo  2251) against International Master Jose Dominguez (Elo 2353), and hard fought draw on board four by junior Malaku Lorne (Elo 2110) against FIDE Master Elvis Hernandez (Elo 2307), Jamaica suffered its third defeat in a row, losing 1 ½ - 2 ½ against the Dominican Republic.

Ras Malaku Lorne of Jamaica

Trinidad & Tobago also had a disappointing round, losing by the same margin to the team from the International Braille Chess Association (IBCA).

The blind team, as it is sometimes called, is a special entry into the Olympiad comprising the top blind or partially sighted players in the World. They play on specially modified chess sets and clocks but are subject to the same rules as all players and compete on equal footing with no special privileges.

Winning  for Trinidad was their National Champion Cristo Cave (Elo 2276) on board 3 against Manez Mora (Elo 2064) while Ravishchen Singh (2093) drew with International Master Sergey Krylov (Elo 2407) on board 1. Cecil Lee (Elo 2048) and Joffrey Marclee (Elo 1990) lost to International Master Vladimir Berlinsky and (Elo 2347) and Rolf Pohlers respectively.

On the top boards, Number 2 seed Ukraine executed a chilling 4-0  win over the Czech Republic to lengthen their lead to 12 points, 1 ½ points clear of their nearest rivals Israel, Bulgaria and defending Champions Russia.

This is Ukraine’s third straight win by such a margin, and it has set the stage for an exciting show down next round with defending Champions Russia, who also had 4-0 result against Sweden.

Barbados has a date next round with Austria, whom they last played at the 1998 Olympiad in Dubai. On that occasion Austria had the distinct honour of being Barbados’s debut match at its first ever Olympiad, and welcomed us to the Global stage with a 4-0 hiding. Team Manager Peter Dawson has said the team is determined to repay the debt.

In the Women’s competition leaders Germany crashed to a 2 ½ - ½ defeat against Defending Champions China, but still manage to share the lead with the Chinese on 8 ½ points, a full point ahead of USA, Russia and Hungry.

The Russian Women recovered lost ground with a 2-l win over the US and Hungry slipped badly losing 2 ½ - ½ against Ukraine.

Live viewing of the top board matches can be followed every day on the Chess Federation web site www.barbados.org/chess.

Report & Photo by Mr Allan Herbert