Caricom Classic Chess Tournament: Guyana Team 1 in second place after four rounds

…Trinidad and Tobago lead with 4 points

Intense competition at the Caricom Classic Chess Team Tournament has seen Trinidad and Tobago take the lead with 4 match points, while Guyana Team 1 is in second place with 3 match points.
After two days and four rounds of gruelling competition, members of the Guyana Team 1 have recorded the following points: CM Taffin Khan, 4 points; FM Anthony Drayton and Shazeeda Rahim, 3.5 points; and Jessica Callender, 1 point.
Guyana Team 2 members Keron Sandiford and Kyle Couchman are on 1 point each, Aditi Joshi is on .5 point, and Sasha Shariff is yet to come off the mark.
In round three, Guyana Team 1 faced off against the St. Lucian team. CM Taffin Khan (2000) defeated Arvin Nicholas (1745) of St. Lucia firstly by trapping one of his knights while placing his opponent in a bind. Khan proceeded to capture more material, and the St. Lucian resigned after a weaker position.
Anthony Drayton and Shazeeda Rahim defeated St. Lucians Justin James and Chelsea Wahid respectively. Jessica Callender (1585) went down to St. Lucian Tris-Ann Richards (1693) following a few inaccuracies that resulted in a losing position, but Guyana Team 1 won the round against St. Lucia.

The Guyana Team 2 play against Jamaica resulted in a loss for Guyana. Keron Sandiford and young Aditi Joshi both drew with their opponents, Nathan Hinds and Krishna Gray respectively, while fourteen-year-old Kyle Couchman and Sasha Shariff both lost to Jhustice McDonald and Adani Clarke. Shariff resigned from her opponent WCM Adani Clarke (1905) when their match was at the endgame stage. The female Jamaican player secured extra material and a passed pawn, which eventually would have been promoted for a win.
In round 4, Guyana Team 1 played against neighbouring Suriname, while Guyana Team 2 played against St. Lucia. FM Anthony Drayton (1936) defeated Jason Yeung (1978) of Suriname in their Round 4 clash. Drayton overwhelmed his opponent by winning material, but he finally clinched victory with a runaway outside passed pawn, which the Surinamese was helpless to stop.
A brilliant display by Guyana’s Shazeeda Rahim (1559) sealed the fate of her opponent Maylee Tjong Tjin Joe (1611) of Suriname. The two female players with a passed pawn each successfully promoted them to formidable Queens, but Rahim gained the upper hand with a pawn thrust by attacking the monarch of the Surinamese. With checkmate looming, Rahim’s opponent resigned.
CM Taffin Khan defeated Surinamese Shaief Chashawa (1786) with extra pawns, creating a decisive advantage from promotion.

Sasha Shariff (1567) finally went down to St. Lucian Tris-Ann Richards (1693) in the endgame, with pawns and Kings remaining on the board. Shariff’s shattered pawn structure contributed to her loss, and Richards’s extra pawn and her aggressive King in the fray prevented a winning response from Shariff.
Although in a promising endgame position, National Junior Champion Keron Sandiford (1741) blundered his game and resigned to St. Lucian Arvin Nicholas (1745).
Round 4 resulted in a win for Guyana against Suriname 3-1, but a loss for Guyana Team 2 against St. Lucia.
A noticeable feature of many matches was the struggles during the endgame. Most tournament participants concentrated their fighting chess during the final endgame stage when it became safe for the Kings to join the fight to win.
The Caricom Classic Team Chess Tournament is being supervised by Barbadian International Arbiter Kelvin Daniel. Guyana’s John Lee, who is assisting, is broadcasting boards 1 to 12 live on the GCF website for viewership at home.
Local National Arbiters Kim Shing Chong, Odit Rodrigues and Ricardo Narine are assistant Arbiters for the week-long tournament. Trinidadian Ms. Sandy Razark and Guyanese Marcia Lee are the female Arbiters. Ms. Razark is also the CCA representative visiting for the tournament.
Games continue today, Thursday, March 7th, with rounds 5 and 6, and on Friday, March 8th, with rounds 7 and 8. The final round will be played on Saturday, March 9th.
The Guyana Chess Federation wishes to thank all sponsors for their generous support towards the Caricom Classic Chess Tournament, especially FIDE; CCA; the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport; Enet, and Exxon Mobil.
The GCF extends sincere thanks to the Caricom Secretariat for support and collaboration in making the tournament a reality.