PRESS RELEASE
CHESS OLYMPIAD TEAM NAMED

The Barbados Chess Federation (BCF) today announced the Barbados teams for the 35th World Chess Olympiad which will be held on October 25 to November 11 2002, in Bled, Slovenia.

Heading the Men's Team will be FIDE Masters Dr. Ricardo Szmetan, Dr. Philip Corbin and Delisle Warner. Other members included 16 year old sensation Askari Elson, Kevin Greenidge and Kelvin Daniel.

Making their debut at an Olympiad will be current National Champion Ricardo Szmetan and Kevin Greenidge. Corbin extends his record as the most capped member of the team, having represented Barbados at every Olympiad it has ever participated in.

Warner will be making his third Olympiad appearance for Barbados while Elson, the youngest player from the English Speaking Caribbean to be internationally rated, and Daniel will be making their second showing.

The Women's team, a team of all former and current National Ladies Champions, comprises National Champion Rashida Corbin, Nathali Greenidge, Rashaana Blenman and Margaret Prince.

A member of the first and only Barbados Olympiad Women's Team, Margaret Prince will join Nathali Greenidge as the experienced members of the Team; Nathali having previously represented Venezuela.

Blenman, who is currently completing her Masters in the US, will be making her Olympiad debut along with National Ladies Champion Rashida Corbin.

Bled will be the second occasion that Barbados has fielded Women's Team at the Olympiad, the previous being Thessalonica 1988. The Jamaica women will also be making their return to Women's Olympiad Chess; their previous participation also being Thessalonica.

With 143 Men's Teams and 98 Women's Teams registered for Bled, the 35th Olympiad is set to dwarf the record for number participating countries.

Russia, with Gary Kasparov on Board 1, will obviously start as favorites for the Men, but many will fancy the chances of the Ukraine who have the finalist from this year's World Championships, World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov and Vassiliy Ivanchuk on Boards 1 and 2.

In the Women's Olympiad, defending Champions China look very strong but the Russian and Georgian women are to keep them honest.

The CAC region is well represented with powerhouses Cuba, Mexico and Colombia fielding their top Grandmasters. The English speaking Caribbean will have the usual trio of Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad representing the Islands.

As preparations continue to make this the best ever showing by Barbados, the BCF have confirm that the British Chess Federation has agreed to provide FIDE Maaster Richard Pert as coach of the Women's team and the International Chess Federation will fund the coach for the men's team, Grandmaster Valeri Gaprindashvili from Georgia.

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