CHESS player Yash Krishen Maharaj is the man to watch for Team Fiji at the 46th World Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan after earning three wins from four matches.
Maharaj is part of Fiji’s Open Team to the world meet and succeeded in towering over highly-rated opponents Rivera Joshia Perdosa of Puerto Rico and Homayoun Mohtaat of Afghanistan.
Collectively, the Open Team joined forces to meet Niger in the third round of the competition and won 3-1.
In that match against Niger, the team was split up with each player facing off with an opponent on one board.
In board one, Candidate Master (CM) Goru Arvind drew with Abdoul Karim Seydou Mahamadou, board two saw Fiji’s CM Rudr Prasad beat Aboubacar Akarintkitt in a Bishop v Knight endgame.
CM Ronald Terubea faced off against Mouhammed Oumarou and drew in board three while Maharaj won board four against Ibrahim Mounkaila.
Regionally, Fiji is not the only team competing from the Pacific; Tonga, Kiribati, Guam, Nauru, Palau, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and the Marshall Islands have sent teams of their own as well to compete.
Team Fiji left our shores earlier this month for Uzbekistan.
They braved a flight time of 41 hours from Nadi to Singapore, then India and Kazakhstan to get to Uzbekistan.
Meanwhile, Team Fiji’s women’s chess players have also been riding on the crest of a winning wave recently, with a 4-0 victory over the Comoros Islands last week.
