Trinidad & Tobago Olympiad team did us proud in round 1 of the Olympiad.
Men’s team square off against 4 Grand Masters from Brazil
Our men’s team played against an all-Grand master team and the result was…they fought as if they didn’t notice their opponents were Grand masters. Every last member of our team played and fought well without giving up. Joshua kept his GM opponent for over 5 hours! The men’s team result reminds me of how we were proud of Trinidad & Tobago’s football team for lasting against Argentina (even though we lost we could see we our improvement).
On the women’s side, our team with an average rating of 1651, played the Lithuanian team (average rating of 2208). For those who don’t know what this means, ratings are 4 digit numbers that reflect the relative odds when players play each other. The higher the difference between the ratings the more likely the higher rated play will win. So based on the almost 600 rating points difference between our women’s team and the Lithuanian team, all our players should have lost in no time. In cricket terms Lithuania would score 600 runs for the loss of no wicket and our team would not even reach 10 runs all out. But not only did we not lose quickly, we actually had one game drawn – Aditi Soondarsingh actually had a better position and held her opponent to a draw. This is like T&T holding Sweden to a draw in the World Cup!
My dear readers, T&T did really well this first round. Keep praying for us and keep following the games. Trinidad & Tobago has sounded a warning…saying to everyone in this first round…do not underestimate us…we are coming for you!!
