SAMARKAND, Uzbek­istan – El Sal­vador cre­at­ed the biggest up­set so far of the 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad by shock­ing Cu­ba when ac­tion con­tin­ued at the Silk Road In­ter­na­tion­al Ex­hi­bi­tion Cen­ter here on Thurs­day.

The 94th seed­ed El Sal­vador pro­duced an im­pres­sive per­for­mance to over­come the 44th ranked Cubans 2.5 – 1.5 to re­main un­beat­en af­ter two rounds.

El Sal­vador’s FIDE mas­ter Car­los Morales, rat­ed at 2244, de­feat­ed Cuban Grand­mas­ter José Rober­to Elías Reyes (2505) with the white pieces, while fel­low FIDE mas­ter San­ti­a­go Gue­vara (2160) al­so pulled off a huge sur­prise, emerg­ing vic­to­ri­ous over 2440 rat­ed Grand­mas­ter Lelys Stan­ley Martínez Du­any.

Mar­vin An­drés Gue­vara (2029) drew with Grand­mas­ter Er­mes Es­pinosa Veloz (2460) to seal the vic­to­ry for his side af­ter Daniel Arias was de­feat­ed by Grand­mas­ter Dy­lan Isidro Ber­dayes Ason.

The re­sult adds to a strong start for El Sal­vador, fol­low­ing a 4-0 vic­to­ry over the British Vir­gin Is­lands in the open­ing round.

Mean­while, Ja­maica, Haiti, Cu­ba, Aru­ba, the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, Trinidad and To­ba­go, Cu­ra­cao, Guyana and Bar­ba­dos are all in joint 54th po­si­tion with sim­i­lar 1-1 records.

How­ev­er, Be­lize, The Ba­hamas, St Vin­cent and the Grenadines, St Kitts & Nevis, Grena­da, Do­mini­ca, Bermu­da, Saint Lu­cia, An­tigua & Bar­bu­da and the Cay­man Is­lands are still search­ing for their first vic­to­ry. CMC