The Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) has named the National Open and Women’s teams that will represent Guyana at the 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, from September 14 to 28.
Two teams of five players each will compete in the Open and Women’s categories.
Candidate Master (CM) Sachin Pitamber, 16, will lead the Open team. He holds the 2026 National Open Chess Championship title, the 2026 National U16 Open Championship title and the 2026 National Rapid Chess Championship title, and will be making his second Olympiad appearance after debuting at the 2024 Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary.
National Junior Chess Champion Kyle Couchman, 16, will make his Olympiad debut. He recently competed at the XXXVI Pan American Youth Chess Festival in Colombia and the FIDE World Youth U16 Olympiad, also held in Colombia.
Guyana’s highest-rated player, Candidate Master (CM) Taffin Khan, will make his fifth Olympiad appearance, having first risen to prominence with the 2008 National Junior Championship title and multiple National Open Championship titles since. He debuted at the 2016 Olympiad in Baku, Uzbekistan.
FIDE Master Anthony Drayton will make his fifth Olympiad appearance since debuting in Tromso, Norway, in 2014. A FIDE-certified school instructor, FM Drayton also coaches youth players in Guyana.
Former National Junior Champion Keron Sandiford, fresh off winning the 2026 National Open Championship Qualifier, rounds out the Open team, drawing on experience from the previous Olympiad in Budapest.
National Women’s Champion, Woman Candidate Master (WCM) Aditi Joshi, 16, will lead the Women’s team in her second Olympiad appearance. She earned her WCM title at the 2024 Olympiad in Budapest and has since competed at the XXXVI Pan American Youth Chess Festival in Colombia.
Former National Women’s Champion, Woman Candidate Master (WCM) Jessica Callender, brings experience from previous Olympiads and regional appearances to the lineup.
Former National Women’s Champion, Woman Candidate Master (WCM) Sasha Shariff, who has represented Guyana at the last three Chess Olympiads, also joins the Women’s team.
The 17-year-old Ciel Clement returns after competing at the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest, while 13-year-old Kataleya Sam, the team’s youngest member, will make her Olympiad debut. Sam holds the 2026 U14 and U16 Girls Chess Championship titles and won bronze at the 2024 CAC Youth Championship.
Both teams trained for six weeks under Serbian Grandmaster (GM) Aleksa Strikovic, who will captain the Open team at the Olympiad. Slovenian GM Georg Mohr will captain the Women’s team.
The GCF thanked the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport and ENet for their sponsorship of the teams’ participation.
The teams will travel to Samarkand in the coming weeks, accompanied by Shenera Sam, Archana Joshi and Tanya Warren-Clement, who will serve as Head of Delegation.
