JAMAICA easily rolled over South Korea 31/2-1/2 as action continued in the eighth round of the 40th World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey yesterday.

FIDE Master (FM) Warren Elliott gave Jamaica an early 1-0 lead within an hour of play as he used a Yogoslav Attack to slay Kyungsik Jang’s Sicilian Dragon in only 18 moves.

Meanwhile, co-national champion Damion Davy proved too much for Wongi Baek, and Andrew ‘The Beast’ Mellace got his international chess debut back on track with a comfortable board four win over Inguh Kim to give Jamaica an insurmountable 3-0 lead.

South Korea denied Jamaica the shut-out as Junggi Bae battled Candidate Master (CM) Duane Rowe to a draw in a tense touch-and-go 63-move same-coloured Bishop ending.

Barbados scored their first win in five matches when they comfortably dispatched Guernsey as International Masters (IM) Kevin Denny, IM Terry Farley, and CM Shamel Howell all registered victories for the Bajans.

Trinidad & Tobago were held to a draw by Sudan as only FM Ryan Harper won for the twin-Island Republic, and Bermuda lost to Sierra Leone.

In today’s ninth round in the Open section, Jamaica (ranked 94th) meet Zimbabwe (96th) for the fifth time at the FIDE chess Olympiad, with Zimbabwe winning twice, Jamaica once, with one draw.

With just three rounds remaining in the chess Olympiad, Caribbean players are in earnest pursuing World Chess Federation (FIDE) titles such as International master (IM), FIDE master FM, Candidate master (CM), and Women Candidate Master (WCM).

With his win today, Jamaica co-champion Damion Davy has already secured the CM title, and now need two victories from the next two games to become Jamaica’s fifth FM. Jamaica currently have three male fide masters — Warren Elliott, Shane ‘The Magician’ Matthews and Grantel Gibbs.

Ten-time Jamaica women’s champion, Deborah Richards-Porter holds a women FIDE master title (WFM).