GCF president wants to create enabling environment for virtual competitions 

Frankie Farley
Frankie Farley

President of the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) Frankie Farley in the aftermath of Guyana’s showing at the just concluded 2020 FIDE Online Olympiad said the federation’s main aim at this point is to create an enabling environment locally where players can begin to embrace competing in virtual spaces. 

The 2020 Olympiad had to be contested online due to coronavirus pandemic. Guyana competed in division four- Pool E alongside nine other contesting teams and placed sixth in that category when the curtains came down Sunday evening.

Although the performance was commended by the local fraternity, Farley believes that more exposure will land the team in good stead moving forward.

“Because of this new environment (COVID – 19), and if we had more practice over the years, we would have done better. It’s a different environment from being over the board so you really need a lot of practice and our programme between now and the end of the year is designed to give players the opportunity to compete online,” Farley told Stabroek Sport.    As part of the federation’s plans, online tournaments will be held every two weeks beginning the last week in August which Farley believes will be an ideal preparation platform to prepare the players for future online events. 

“…I’m sure by the next tournament we will be better prepared,” he noted while adding: “There are a number of international tournaments in the pipeline that are not defined as yet and most of them are centered online and we have our own online events,” Farley said.

Asked about his impressions of Guyana’s showing at the recently concluded event, the President said: “It was excellent.” 

He added, “I think we actually had some difficulties technologically since that was the first time we did it but we overcame that and the result showed that we had two excellenct performers in Wendell [Meusa] and Ethan Lee so I think it was a great experience for us.” 

Meusa was Guyana’s star performer winning all six of his games while Lee won three of his four encounters. Jessica Callender was another top performer for the locals, winning two of her three games. 

Another  aim of the federation is to produce grandmasters. Farley explained that Guyana does not have one at the moment and is desperate to have a player (s) who can represent the highest title in the sport.

“Our goal is to produce grandmasters and I think we can do it,” he declared.