Trinidad and Tobago, after racing ahead of Jamaica and Barbados in the first three rounds of the Open section of the 41st Chess Olympiad at Tromso, Norway, finished the eleven-round tournament in 132nd place, falling behind both of their Caribbean rivals and finishing 16 places lower than their own performance in the previous Olympiad at Istanbul, Turkey, two years ago.
A total of 177 countries participated in the Open contest at Tromso, with Jamaica gaining 89th place and Barbados 127th.
Among the 136 teams contesting the Women's Section, Jamaica placed 87th with four wins, two draws and five losses, Trinidad and Tobago 102nd with three wins three draws and five losses and Barbados 120th with three wins, one draw and seven losses.
Individually, top performers for T&T were national champion FM Ryan Harper who garnered five points from eleven games and Fatima College student CM Joshua Johnson who scored four and a half from nine games.
CM Adrian Winter Atwell gained two and a half points from nine and CM Ravishen Singh two and a half from eight.
Among T&T females, national champion WCM Javanna Smith led the team with five wins and one draw.
Finishing half a point behind her were WCM Aditi Soondarsingh and Gabriella Johnson, Under-14 national champion, who gained the Candidate Master title in the process.
For the first time, China has taken the lead among the world's chess-playing countries, topping the Open with 19 points from eight wins and three draws.
The once all conquering Russians had to be satisfied with fourth place behind Hungary and India, the three finishing with 17 points together with fifth placed Azerbaijan.
Behind them were Ukraine, Cuba, Amenia, Israel, Spain and Belarus on 16 points each.
China drew with top seeds Russia and Ukraine, but beat their other main rivals in an emphatic, history-making triumph.
Their individual star, 20-year-old Yu Yangi, scored 9.5 points, the highest of any Olympiad player. He won the third board gold medal and advanced his world rating to the elite 2700 level.
Among the women, Russia, with ten wins, turned the tables on China which finished second on 18, together with Ukraine.