USA Ties for 6th at 2nd FIDE Chess Olympiad for People with Disabilities

The 2nd FIDE Chess Olympiad for People with Disabilities was held Oct. 19-26 in Astana, Kazakhstan. The Russian team FIDE 1 won gold with 11 match points (5½/6), ahead of Poland (10 points), and Israel, which won bronze ahead of two other times tied for third with nine points. The USA team tied for sixth with Cuba with four wins and two losses (eight match points).

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From left: Silver medalists Poland, champions FIDE 1, and bronze medalists Israel (All photos courtesy FIDE)

The American team consisted of the brothers McConnell (Sullivan and Griffin) from Colorado on Board 1 and 2, respectively. CM Michael Aigner of California played third board, and 12-year-old Celine Atassi of North Carolina on Board 4. IM Justin Sarkar rounded out the team as Board 5 (alternate).

After jumping out to a perfect start with 2½–1½ and 3½–½ wins over FIDE 2 and Kazakhstan 3, respectively, USA lost to eventual champions FIDE 1 3–1 in Round 3. Below are two fine attacking games from Round 2, an instructive dismantling of the Benko Gambit by Sarkar, and a tense struggle on Board 2 against FIDE 1:

USA rebounded with a 3–1 victory over Colombia, but lost by the same score in Round 5 to International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) before closing out the event with a 3½–½ win over Croatia.

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The board used by IBCA players.

While it was not enough to salvage the match, Atassi’s draw against Romanian FM Mihail-Dacian Pribeanu showed remarkable fortitude from the talented junior:

Finally, Sullivan McConnell’s Round 5 win on the top board was a delightfully sharp game:

All standings are available here, and games from the top boards of each round can be reviewed here.