Chessists head for World Olympiad

A twelve member contingent selected by the Trinidad and Tobago Chess Association (TTCA) will leave Trinidad and Tobago on October 13 to compete  at the 36th World Chess Olympiad. More than 150 countries will be represented at the competition to be hosted by world body FIDE in Calvia, Spain, from October 14 to 31. At the last edition of the bi-annual event, Trinidad and Tobago’s Ravishen Singh captured a silver medal, the best performance by a chessist from the English speaking Caribbean.

This year he is once again part of the team that fell half point short of the bronze medal in Bled, Slovenia two years ago. He is looking forward to an improvement of fortunes in Spain. Christo Cave, a 13-time National Chess Champion, will once again lead the men’s team which also includes Singh, Mario Merritt, Joffrey Marcelle, Frank Yee, Cecil Lee and 1986 bronze medallist John Raphael, who serves as the non-playing captain. On their return to the Olympiad after a 180-year hiatus the Trinidad and Tobago women’s team features a young lineup and is led by national champion Aditi Soondarsingh, a Form four student at the St James Government Secondary School. The rebirth of the women’s game comes on the heels of the TTCA’s reintroduction of the National Women’s Championships in 2002. The rest of the team are Arlene Blackman, Sinead Furlong, Lyndy-Ann Giuseppi with National Master and former national champion Yogrendranath Ramsingh serving as the non-playing captain.