By Sulayman Bah
The Gambia’s Chess team that participated in the World Chess 
Olmpiad has returned home following an unimpressive outing.
It wasn’t the best of outings for the Gambian contingent who had to first put up with visa delays for the Norway tournament that had one hundred and seventy-five countries vying for slots.
The delay which caused the team to miss out on the first round of events, were glimpses of what awaited the team; as they went on to concede four- zero in their opening matches with lack of experience blamed for the unprepossessing show.
Explaining the squad’s activities while at the Tromso occasion, Gambia Chess Federation said in a statement: “The Gambian team misses the 1st round due to visa delay (but) thanks to National Sports Council for their support. The Gambia is ranked 153 leading many countires like Cameroon, Gabon, Togo, Senegal, Zambia etc. There was a FIDE Congress and general election for the presidency of FIDE which was won by KirsanLlyumzhinov beating former world champion, Gary Kasparov.”
The release further noted “the Gambians did well but only lacked experience in international competition and tournaments of this nature. The team needs more training, exposure and support.
China claimed the staked prize in the male category winning gold while Russia clinched top spot in the female category. Azerbaijan hosts the next Olympiad in 2016 with Georgia to follow next”]]>
