Barbados set to push off in FIDE Online Olympiad

Barbados will face off against Honduras when they make their entry to the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad on Friday.

The eight-member Bajan team will also battle Jamaica and Puerto Rico on the first day of action in Pool E of Division 3.

Under the format of the event which will be played under the rapid time control, Division 3 includes 50 teams divided equally in five pools. The top three teams in each pool will advance to Division 2.

Barbados’ first match will be at noon with the second round scheduled for 1 p.m. and the third round at 2 p.m. The schedule will be maintained for Saturday’s games against Ghana, Nicaragua and Namibia and Sunday’s contests against Venezuela, El Salvador and Panama.

Unlike the over-the-board Olympiad where countries enter separate teams in the Open and Women’s sections, the Online Olympiad is a mixed event with countries fielding one team comprising male players on boards 1 and 2, female players on boards 3 and 4, an Under-20 male player on board 5 and an Under-20 female player on board 6.

The Barbados team will be spearheaded by International Master Delisle Warner, who is making a return to national duty for the first time in more than five years. Warner, one of only four International Masters Barbados has produced, has been residing in St. Kitts in recent years.

The other members of the Barbados team, which was selected from a local qualifying event at the beginning of the month, are Emar Edwards, Julissa Figueroa, Hannah Wilson, Louis Wilson, Gaybrianna Moore, Adam Roachford and Melvin Terence.

The Online Olympiad, which has attracted more than 1 000 participants from 153 countries, has been organised by the world governing body for chess for the second successive year in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In last year’s event, Barbados finished seventh of ten teams in Pool E of Division 3. (BCF)