The curtains at the World Chess Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan were brought down on Tuesday, September 13 after 14 days of intense and keen competition among 180 nations in the Open category and 142 in the Women section.
USA went unbeaten and won the gold medal for the first time in four decades in the Open category ahead of pre-tournament outright favorites Russia who settled for bronze while the Chinese took the ladies gold.
Despite missing the first three rounds, Ugandans put up a grit fight to finish a decent 126th in the Open section with three wins including a hard fought victory against Angola in the seventh round while the Ladies managed a 117 finish with the Tunisians falling prey along the way.
The three-time Olympian, Fide Master Harold Wanyama shares his experience at the 42nd edition.
On the day we reached, we were welcomed by the organizers who were stationed at the airport. We were taken to a small but very fantastic hotel called Days Hotel. We had missed the first three rounds so had little time to prepare.
The organization was great, we had police escort us to and from the games. Generally, security was very tight at the venue to prevent cheating which is getting easier with modern technology. The feeding was also excellent and we ate food similar to back home.
Wanyama who plays for Kireka Chess Club in the National Chess League enjoyed a meritorious start at the Olympiad with four consecutive victories including a win against former African Junior Champion, International Master David Silva who he lost to in the recently concluded African Individual Chess Championships held in Uganda.
In spite of losing round eight to Moroccan Candidate Master Adel Choukri, and the last round to New Zealand’s Scott Wastney, the five victories he registered at the tournament, and unimaginable draw against arguably the best deaf chess player in the world currently, Duilio Collutis ensured he returned home as the best performing African on board two, and the only Fide Master on the list that had 15 Grand Masters dominate. To make it even more notable, the rated 2251 finished 17th ahead of World number three seed, America’s GM Hikaru Nakamura.
The games went well for me as I had 4/4 and was on course for gold, but lost to Chouri. Seeing we had lost some good players in Arthur (Ssegwanyi) and Okas, I had to step up.
As a team, we did well considering the losses we had and had we won our last two matches, we could have topped the group. Our best matches were against Angola who boasted of two former African champions and against the deaf team that was highly rated.
After recovering from the eighth round loss to beat Hong Kong’s Lau Lut Yin Luke in the subsequent round, the 32 year old knew what a task awaited him and the team in general in the penultimate round against a very good International Chess Community of the Deaf [ICCD] team that fielded a GM and two IMs.
Board two saw Wanyama take on an ever green Italian IM, and Collutiis was clearly winning only for Wanyama to unbelievably force a draw making it his best game in the tournament.
I had made a mistake towards the game and usually against such players, you are sure to lose. So I dug deep and defended with active moves. In the end, he failed to find a continuation and we agreed to draw. That draw also meant Uganda wasn’t losing the match because it was the last game. Had he won, we would have lost.
The team returned on Wednesday afternoon.
