After the dust had settled on the fourth round, it was decided to rest the hitherto unlucky Maria Palmer from the women's team and elevate national female champion Deborah Richards to Board one (with the White pieces) thereby affording her the chance to exorcise the ghosts of round three. This ultimately proved successful. In the final analysis, however, Wednesday, 30th October, 2002 turned out to be a bitter-sweet day for Jamaica at the Olympiad in Bled as there were contrasting results in the men and women's competitions.

WOMEN

JAMAICA

The Jamaican women scored their first victory of the tournament, beating Yemen 2-1 in match 42.On board one, Richards performed the necessary rites and banished the demons, chalking up her first win in the process. She played her English Opening positively and easily defeated Al-Qershi Buthaina. On board two Hui Zhu had her second win in a row comfortably defeating Saed Nasher Merfat's Ruy Lopez. The rout would have been complete but on board three Vanessa Thomas, playing with the white pieces and a piece up in a patently winning position, blundered with 21.Re1 ?? and was mated with Black's 22nd move.

In spite of Vanessa's misfortune, there was still joy in the Jamaican camp as the women celebrated their maiden victory. Jamaica has now moved up to 83rd place with 4.5 points from five games. In the 6th round the bouyant girls will face a very experienced New Zealand team.

Although Nathali Greenidge won on board one, Barbados lost 1-2 to the Dominican Republic as Rashaana Blenman and Margaret Prince succumbed on boards two and three, respectivly. Barbados, like Jamaica, also has 4.5 points but are ahead, in 81st place, on tie-breaks.

Cuba continued to play well, beating Finland 2.5-1.5 in match 20. Fidel Castro's team is now in 26th position with 9 points. They finished 20th in the 2000 Olympiad in Istanbul. Angola beat Zimbabwe 2-1, Zambia lost to Japan 1-2 and Wales blanked Nigeria 3-0.

At the leader board, China rested Zhu Chen and suffered a shock 1-2 defeat to the rapidly improved USA team with WIM Jennifer Shahade beating WGM Wang Pin on board two. WGM Xue Zhao salvaged some Chinese pride by defeating WGM Elena Donaldson on board three.

In match two, Georgia stamped its class over India with an emphatic 3-0 thumping and Russia, without the gorgeous WGM Alexandra Kosteniuk in the line-up, beat a very strong Polish aggregation 2-1. Georgia leads the standings with 12 points followed, surprisingly, by the USA on 11.5. The Czech Republic, Russia and the Netherlands have 11 points each while defending champions China are in 6th position with 10.5 points.

MEN

JAMAICA

In match 48 Jamaica's men were torched 4-0 by Peru, a  South American country with very strong chess players. FM Warren Elliot was rested and on board one his replacement NM Shane Matthews, who is accustomed to playing top board for Jamaica, resignedly shook the hand of GM Julio Zuniga Granda after 24 moves in a tough Sicilian. On board two NM Jomo Pitterson fared no better as, although he had the white pieces, IM Mario Belli's King's Indian defence was too strong. On board three  NM Duane Rowe missed what looked like a draw playing his fourth straight game with the black pieces. After an interesting pawn ending he lost to IM Marco Pacheco in 59 moves . Candidate Master Mark Smith fought doggedly on board four but after giving up a piece in the endgame he did not survive against Christian Esplana's Sicilian defence.

The "quiet" and reflective mood in the men's camp was tempered somewhat by the Jamaican women's victory. The men have 6.5 points and will face Hong Kong in round six.

Scotland swept Barbados 4-0 in match 45. Parading GM Paul Motwani on board one, GM Colin Mcnab on board three and international masters on boards 2 and four, respectively, Scotland were just too powerful for FM Ricardo Szmetan, FM Philip Corbin, FM Delisle Warner and Askari Elson, respectively.

The men from the land of the hummingbird fared much better than their West Indian counterparts as Trinidad and Tobago, behind a win by John Raphael on board four and a draw by FM Mario Merritt on board two went down 1.5 - 2.5 to Lebanon in match 43.

Jamaica's next-door neighbours Cuba registered another strong performance on board six drawing all four games against the "flying Dutchmen" from the Netherlands. GM Lazaro Bruzon, playing with the black pieces on the top board, survived a sixty-move game against GM Loek Van Wely.

FIGHTING SIMUTOWE

Zambia went down 1-3 to Albania although IM Amon Simutowe's African star continued to shine brightly with a draw on board one against the solid Albanian GM Erald Dervishi. Simutowe, a pawn up, refused a draw in an interesting Rook and Bishop ending but could not find a win and eventually signed the peace treaty after more than one hundred moves !

Rwanda beat the US Virgin Islands 2.5-1.5, Somalia drew with the British Virgin Islands 2-2, Ethiopia and Hong Kong drew 2-2, Uganda beat Kenya 4-0 and Nigeria beat Malta 2.5-1.5.

ROBERT GWAZE

Although Zimbabwe drew 2-2 with South Africa in match 46, IM Robert Gwaze's meteor continued to soar as he turned back IM David Gluckman's French defence to win his fifth straight game and maintained his 100% start to the competition.

Gwaze, who failed to win a gold medal at the last Olympiad after being thwarted by Jamaica's NM Shane Matthews, seems unstoppable this time around.

A NEW LEADER

On the top board, Russia and armenia drew 2-2. Garry Kasparov had to settle for a draw with the Black pieces against superGm Vladimir Akopian. On board two, Armenian GM Smbat Lputian beat GM Alexander Grischuk and, after a draw between Gms Karen Asrian and Alexander Khalifman on board three, Russian GM Alexander Morozevich saved the match by beating IM Gabriel Sargissian on board four.

The new leaders of the men's competition are Bosnia-Herzegovina who stormed to the top of the standings (with 15.5 points) after repelling a strong Polish team 3-1. IM Faruk Bistric continued his impressive start to the tournament by winning on board four and provided able support to GM Predrag Nikolic who beat GM Michal Krasenkow on board one.

Hungary beat Moldova 2.5-1.5 as "wonderwoman", superGM Judit Polgar continued to carry the charge for the Hungarian team, recording the sole win in the tie as she beat GMDmitry Svetushkin with the Nimzo-Indian defence.

 Russia and Armenia are on 15 points, Romania is fourth on 14.5 and six teams, including England, Hungary and Poland are tied on 14 points.

SLOVENIAN TIDBIT: Sah is Slovenian for chess, igralec means player and sodnik means arbiter.

Ian Wikinson,

Jamaican team captain,

Press centre, Festivalna Dvorana

Bled, Slovenia