Federation picks chess Olympiad team without holding qualifier

Director of Sport Christopher Jones and President of the Guyana Chess Federation Irshad Mohammed (centre) stand with some members of the 2016 Guyana Olympiad chess team. The team travels to Baku, Azerbaijan, for participation at the Olympiad in September. A signature qualifying tournament was not held to determine the members of Guyana’s Olympiad chess team.

The Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) has decided upon a 2016 Guyana Olympiad chess team without hosting a qualification competition to determine the competence of its participants. Unlike the traditional four-year Olympic Games cycle, the chess Olympiad is held biennially. The previous chess Olympiad, therefore, was held in 2014. Minus a women’s chess team which Guyana is fielding for the first time, the male team members are homogenous as in the 2014 edition, in addition to a new face.

20130810chesslogoIt’s as if the propulsion of Guyana’s chess became impeded over the past three years. It’s as if the identical persons were playing chess during the period from 2014 to the present. If there were other men and women playing competitive chess in Guyana, and I suspect there were, why were they denied an opportunity to compete for transparent qualification to the Olympiad? Chess was not meant to be promoted in such a dark, ineffective and opaque manner. The founder of the GCF and its initial president was pellucid in his contention that the game of chess is for everyone. But how can we take chess to the masses without the