6 tie for top spot at Senior Chess Nationals

The Guyana Chess Federation held its Senior National Qualifiers at the National Resource Center, Woolford Avenue on Sunday afternoon which saw the likes of Candidate Master (CM), Taffin Khan, WFM Maria Varona-Thomas, CM Anthony Drayton, Davion Mars, Calvin Giddings and Chino Chung ending the day on two points apiece.

Throughout the day, Mars disposed of Jaden Taylor in his first sitting before returning to make light work of Shazeeda Rahim later in the day. Meanwhile, Giddings defeated Joshua Ferdinand in the morning session and then came back in the afternoon to snatch a win from Joshua Gopaul.
In the other matches, CM Taffin Khan disposed of both of his opponents, Aravinda Singh and Roberto Neto while Chung conquered Akili Theophil before taking down Rashad Hussain, earing the two winners two points. Anthony Drayton, also a former junior chess champion, defeated Joshua Gopaul and veteran player, David Khan, to also stay among the front runners.
Aravinda Singh then won from Kriskoff Persaud. Gopaul also surrendered his second game to Calvin Giddings while David Khan repaired the damage of his loss to Drayton with a win over Nellisha Johnson. Woman Candidate Master (WCM), Maria Varona Thomas benefitted from a bye in the first sitting before extending her tally to two points in the second sitting by defeating Frankie Farley. Farley won his first game against Andre Jagnandan.
Rahim won from Jessica Callender.
Arvinda Singh rebounded from her loss to Taffin Khan to win from Kriskoff Persaud.
Persaud also surrendered a game to Roberto Neto.
Meusa, who recently secured his transfer from Barbados Chess Federation to the local entity, will aspire to retain the crown for the third time. He has chalked up a FIDE rating of 1967 and is the highest local FIDE rated player.
The tournament is being competed in a Round Robin format and will resume sometime during the week. The organizers said that the current venue will be unavailable and they are scouting a replacement before ascertaining the next playing days.