PRESS RELEASE 6: October 22, 2004

PORTUGAL FLOOR BARBADOS 4-0

Portugal floored Barbados in 6^th round action of the 36^th World Chess Olympiad currently being played in Calvia, Spain, with a 4-0 beating.

The Portuguese started impressively with FIDE Master Jose Pinheiro (Elo 2310) quickly winning on board 2 against FIDE Master Delisle Warner (Elo 2991).

Sagicor Open Junior Champion Martyn del Castilho of The Lodge School, was next to fall, losing to Joao Guerra Costa (Elo 2284) on board 4.

A spirited fight by National Champion International Master Kevin Denny (Elo 2334) against Grandmaster Luis Galego on board 1 was not enough to stop the loss and the Portuguese Grandmaster patiently press home an endgame advantage to put their 3^rd point.

This left Terry Farley with the awesome responsibility to salvage some pride for Barbados. A tense 5 hour duel ensue and Farley, always under severe time pressure, steer the game to a bishop and two pawns vs knight and two pawns ending which neither side could force victory.

FIDE Master Antonio Vitor (Elo 2319) simply persisted, sensing a growing frustration by Farley. His perseverance finally paid off, as Farley inexplicably forget his clock to overstep the time limit and losing the match.

In other action, Defending Champions Russia had a very good day at the office pulling off a big 3 ½ - ½ win over a strong Israeli team.

Winning for the Russians were Grandmasters Alexander Morozevich (Elo 2758), Peter Svidler (Elo 2735) and Alexey Dreev (Elo 2698) over Grandmasters Boris Gelfand (2693), Emil Sutovsky (Elo 2697) and Alexander Huzman (Elo 2581), while Grandmasters Alexander Grischuck (Elo 2704)  and Boris Avrukh (Elo 2614) played to a draw.

This win catapulted the Defending Champions into second position with 18 points, as leaders Ukraine fought to a 2 ½ -  1 ½ win against Azerbaijan maintaining their lead with 19 points.

Bulgaria and India share for 3^rd position with 17 points after 3 ½ -1 ½ and 3-1 wins over Poland and the Netherlands respectively.

Cuba returned to winners row with a 2 ½ - 1 ½ win against Uzbekistan, Grandmasters Jusus Norgueiras (Elo 2546) and Lenier Dominguez (Elo 2645) winning for the Cubans.

The Dominican Republic also had a good round with a 3-1 victory against Uruguay, as did Jamaica with a 4-0 shut out of Guernsey.

Trinidad & Tobago, Puerto Rico and Surinam all drew 2-2 with British Virgin Islands, Nepal and Monaco.

The Netherlands Antilles and Bermuda had a disappointing round losing 2 ½ - 1 ½ to Mauritius and Rwanda respectively, while in an all Caribbean affair Aruba won 3 ½ - ½ against the US Virgin Islands.

Defending Champions China continue to dominate the Women’s competition, topping the standings with 16 points a clear 3 points, the equivalent of a full match, ahead of their nearest rival France.

Breathing down the French necks are Russia, Ukraine, USA, India, Bulgaria and Armenia all on 12 points.

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