While Budapest, the Hungarian capitol city is showing the light and the world’s attention to the 45th Olympiad which is biggest center of attraction for chess players and federations, Abigail Karyah is the rising star hitting every stage with stunning performances making Liberia’s case to the World Chess Federation.
The bright and insightful teenager is flagging Liberia’s national symbols and has significantly eaten up the show from hundreds of female chess players participating in the women session of the 2024 Chess Olympiad.
Little miss Karyah since the start of the ongoing internationally graded competition on September 11, 2024 has played six rounds in her session without losing a single point to anyone sharing boards with her.
She has recaptured the confidence of Liberia’s challenged chess community with classical intelligence by toping women category individual performance chat after five rounds of play.
Currently, Abigail is the only African woman in the competition this year that has not been defeated despite her pairings against topnotch higher ranking western players.
As a former back-to-back Liberian women champion, the youngster is leading the country’s young women team alongside fast rising current women champion Georgina Sackie.
Citing the challenges faced back in the western coast of Africa by the Liberian Chess Federation in nurturing and growing young intellectuals in the mind game, the team’s performance through Abilgail and Georgina robust stance in the top 25 best performing women shows gradual need to have more systems put in place in order to have other Liberians pushing their talents to the world.
The story of Karyah making airwaves in Budapest is equivalent to thousands of other young people that have not been given the opportunity to perform the craft.
The road leading the Liberia Chess Delegation of 13 persons to Budapest was a narrow one that posed several threats to their participation with government apparently abandoning its responsibility of taking on the cost of the sporting federation’s travel and other expenditure.
The team left in a shortened fashion leaving behind coaches, and other technical staffers that were needed to back the players as they battle experienced opponents in the historical FIDE Olympiad.
However, the federation has recounted that this year’s world event will eventually mark a milestone for the Liberian chess community as players’ performances highlight the growth of the game throughout the country.
The LCF in a release from Budapest, intimated that it is very interesting to observe that Liberia has produced two of the three Africans that sat on the log of the top 25 female candidates after round five of the 2024 Olympiad.
The hope of the local federation according to many officials is not currently about winning the global event but fighting to secure a spot on the overall among the top 100 federations at the end of the Olympiad.
Georgina Sackie and Abigail Karyah, along with the other team members so far have proven to the world that they can achieve their set goals and get the desire regards for their dear Lone Star.
