Allicock, Couchman & Joshi dominate GCF’s year-end chess tournaments

FIDE Master (FM) Rawle Allicock won the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF)-sponsored End of Year Rapid, while Kyle Couchman took first place in the Blitz segment of the chess competitions held last Saturday and Sunday, respectively, at the School of the Nations in Georgetown.
Woman Candidate Master (WCM) Aditi Joshi clinched the Best Female prize in both competitions.

Allicock played unbeaten in the End of Year Rapid competition, delivering a commanding, unbeaten performance to finish with 6.5 points. His near-perfect run was only tempered by a draw against second-place finisher Couchman (5.5 points) in Round 5, while Keron Sandiford secured third place with 5 points.
Couchman, after performing flawlessly in the first six rounds, lost to Candidate Master (CM) Sachin Pitamber in the last round. Pitamber, having opted to play in the Open section, secured the fourth-place spot in the Open Category with 5 points.
Joshi, also playing in the Open section, ended the competition with 5 points. The junior ranks displayed equally fierce competition in the U-20 category, where Ricardo Narine, who finished with 5 points, earned the best player prize ahead of Rafael Park and Matthew Singh, who both finished with 5 points each to take second and third place, respectively.
Lusianna Farlot took home the Best Female prize for the U-20 category after achieving the top score of 3 points among the junior females. Excellent performances also came from Kim Shing Chong, who also earned 5 points, and Alexander Zhang and Aiden Tinnie, who both concluded with 4.5 points.
The End of Year Rapid Tournament, featuring a seven-round Swiss format with a time control of 15 minutes plus 5-second increments, attracted the nation’s elite talent for a showdown over the boards.
The Year-End Blitz tournament, played on Sunday, held with a 5-minute plus 3-second increment time control, was dominated by Couchman. He claimed first place with an unbeaten 8.5 points across nine rounds.
Couchman’s near-perfect run was only slightly slowed by a final-round draw against Nicholas Zhang, but his standout performance came in round five, where he secured a crucial victory over FM Allicock. He took second place with 8 points, while Matthew Singh earned third with 6.5 points, showing remarkable tenacity by losing only to the top two finishers.

WCM Joshi once again secured the Best Female prize, delivering a consistent performance to finish with 5 points. Among the other standout performers were Sandiford, who earned 6 points, followed closely by Joshua Gopaul with 5.5. Alexander and Nicholas Zhang both concluded their runs on 5 points, while Kishun Puran (4.5) and Jessica Callendar (4.0) delivered solid performances to round out the top ten.
Cash prizes totalling $159,000 were handed out to the top three winners and best female in the Open and U-20 Categories in the Rapid Tournament, while the top three placements and best female in the Blitz Competition received awards.
The GCF extended its sincere gratitude to the School of the Nations for its continued support as venue host and commended FM Anthony Drayton for his professional oversight of the games.
For those interested in joining the local chess community, further details on clubs and membership are available at guyanachess.gy.