Press Release

34th WORLD CHESS OLYMPIAD
PRESS RELEASE 4: 2000/11/01

The junior members of the Barbados team, under the leadership of Dirk Austin, scored the 1st win for Barbados at the 34th World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey, when Mutual Open Junior Champion Askari Elson and National Under 20 Champion Junior Taitt won their games to secure a 2.5-1.5 win over Macau.

Elson and Taitt were in devastating form, simply out playing Zachary Calangi (2183) and Rolando Fesalbon on boards 2 and 3 respectively. Austin, on board 1, was himself a little unfortunate, failing to convert his game against Ernesto Ma (2200) to a win, while Olaudah Pryce from St. Leonards Boys miss his chance to draw against Kouk Chan.

Barbados Juniors Olaudah Pryce, St. Leonard's Boys, Junior Taitt and Askari Elson,
Harrison College, before the start of the Macau match.

This was the 3rd Olympiad in a row that Macau has played Barbados and the third they were back to the drawing boards, having suffered a 4-0 drubbing in Yerevan in 1996, a 2.5-1.5 loss in Elista in 1998 and another 2.5-1.5 defeat in Istanbul.

In top board action, the lead changed hands for the first time with Germany upsetting the Hungarians, on a high after their previous round defeat of Russia, 3-1.

Winning for the Germans were Grandmasters Rustem Dautov (2606) and Thomas Luther (2547) against Grandmasters Judit Polgar (2656) and Lajos Portish (2573) on boards 3 and 4, while Grandmasters Artur Jussupow (2610) and Dr. Robert Huebner (2615) held Peter Leko (2743) and Zoltan Almasi (2668) to draws on the top two boards.

Hungarian Team of Veteran Grandmaster Lajos Portish, Judit Polgar, Zoltan Almasi and Peter Leko

Cuba on table 2 fared no better also going under 3-1 against Israel while Brazil scored an important 2.5-1.5 victory over Slovakia. Russia dispatched France 3-1 and The Netherlands held England to a 2-2 draw.

The Germans now hold a 1-point lead with 13.5 points followed by Israel on 12.5. Lurking with intent are defending champions Russia tied with Ukraine and South American powerhouse Brazil on 12.

In the Women's section The Netherlands held defending champions China to a 1.5-1.5 draw to open the door for Georgia to grab a narrow half point lead with a big 2.5-0.5 win over Russia.

Big 2.5-0.5 wins by Yugoslavia and Kazakhstan over Czech Republic and England has resulted with a 4 way tie for 2nd between China, Netherlands, Yugoslavia and Kazakhstan.

Results from the top 10 boards Men:

1. Germany 3.0 - Hungary 1.0
2. Cuba 1.0 - Israel 3.0
3. Slovakia 1.5 - Brazil 2.5
4. Russia 3.0 - France 1.0
5. Netherlands 2.0 - England 2.0
6. China 2.0 - Poland 2.0
7. India 3.0 - USA 1.0
8. Estonia 1.5 - Armenia 2.5
9. Spain 3.0 - Philippines 1.0
10. Switzerland 3.0 - Italy 1.0

Results from the top 10 boards Women:

1. Netherlands 1.5- China 1.5
2. Georgia 2.5 - Russia 0.5
3. Yugoslavia 2.5 - Czech Republic 0.5
4. Vietnam 2.0 - Greece 1.0
5. Kazakhstan 2.5 - England 0.5
6. Moldova 2.5 - India 0.5
7. USA 1.0 - Romania 2.0
8. Ukraine 3.0 - Armenia 0.0
9. Latvia 1.0 - Poland 2.0
10. Hungary 1.5 - Estonia 1.5