Couchman, Lall victorious at National U14 rapid tournament

Mobile Money Guyana has partnered with the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) for the execution of the organisation’s National Under-14 Chess Tournament in the open and girls’ categories.
The tournament, which was conducted in the Queen’s College Compound from 09:00h to 15:00h on Saturday, February 25, saw fierce competition among the young contenders. Seven rounds of play were held under a time control of 20 minutes per player, with 5 seconds added to the clock after each move.

mmg+ Product Marketing Manager Diana Gittens said that the partnership with the Federation was part of the company’s commitment to youth development.
“Chess is an important sport that plays a vital role in the cognitive development of children and young people and we are supporting the activities of the Chess Federation in promoting the game among youth,” she said.
Gittens added that the company believed that the GCF continued to underscore the importance of chess in teaching concentration, evaluation, patience, and calculated risk-taking.

“It’s an honour to be associated with the development of this sport and its positive characteristics. This tournament indicates commitment to the game and we are immensely proud of all the young participants,” she added.
Emerging successful was 13-year-old defending champion Kyle Couchman from Queen’s College with 6.5 points after seven matches. Couchman, who holds the 2022 National Open Under-14 and Under-16 titles, skilfully outmanoeuvred his opponents once again, to come out ahead of 12-year-old Alexander Zhang, of the same school, who earned second place with 5.5 points, and 13-year-old Micaiah Enoe of Marian Academy, who placed third, also with 5.5 points.
While Alexander and Micaiah finished on the same points, Alexander was ranked higher owing to the Buchholz tiebreak system, which takes into account the scores of the opponents that a player has defeated. The player with the highest total Buchholz score (highest sum of the scores of the opponents that player has defeated) is ranked higher.

An elated Couchman received the top trophy from mmg+ Product Marketing Manager Gittens, during a simple ceremony at the end of the game. He had moments before gracefully conceded a draw in his final game against Enoe, after dominating the tournament from the beginning. Couchman said that he aspired to go on to represent Guyana at the international level.
“I’m happy about winning, because there were some really challenging points, but I was able to get over it. My dream is to go on to represent Guyana at really big international tournaments”.
Couchman managed to defeat Arush Ramnarine, Vivek Persaud, Ethen Pompey, Julian Mohabir, and siblings Alexander and Nicholas Zhang.
Notable performances from Ethan Thakurdin, Nicholas Zhang and Vivek Persaud who all finished on 5.5 points, and were given medals for fourth, fifth and sixth place respectively.
Julian Mohabir won the trophy as the Best U10 player while Aquilani Swaminadha, who is notably this year’s Under-12 Open Champion earned the second-place U10 trophy. Arush Ramnarine was third among the U10, Landon Mohabir earned the Best U8 trophy while Vir Narine was second in the U8 and Lester Thomas third.
In the Girls’ Tournament, national deaf chess player Anaya Lall earned the Under-14 Girls Chess Championship title. Lall amassed wins against Ciel Clement, Aditi Joshi, Atalya John, Kataleya Sam, Parnita Kishun, and Jahzara Jackson before earning a half point in her final round owing to a stalemate with Nemisha Jagmohan. It is worth mentioning that Lall is the youngest player to have ever qualified and represented Guyana at a FIDE Chess Olympiad, and she is also the only Guyanese to have competed in the World Chess Championship for People with Disabilities.
Kataleya Sam took home two trophies; one for second place in the Girls’ Championship and one for best U10 player. She finished on six points, with her only loss being against the champion, Lall.
Ciel Clement finished third on 5 points. Nemisha Jagmohan was the second-place U10 while Chelsea Harrison was third.
GCF President Anand Raghunauth said that the competition, which had more than 70 participants, was the largest the Federation has organised at the junior level.
“We had a serious competition and the winners were very skilful. We have 12-year-old children challenging top junior players in a very competitive way. This is something new and it shows that our training programme is working,” he declared.
Raghunauth was happy to see such a tremendous turnout for the tournament, and expressed that the GCF has made great strides in encouraging children across the country to engage in the game of chess and it is the hope that more schools will come on board to establish chess clubs as part of their extra-curricular activities.
He said that the GCF was focused on raising the quality of competition among children. Girls especially are encouraged to participate and grow in strength, and the GCF believes in training the younger generation to be involved in the sport at every level so that the intangible benefits of chess would be realised as more involvement can only result in the greater good for future generations.
The tournaments were supervised by FIDE Arbiter and Head of Development of the GCF, John Lee, with assistance from National Arbiter Jessica Callender along with Roberto Neto, and Candidate Master (CM) Taffin Khan and Fide Master (FM) Anthony Drayton.
The tournaments saw participation from students of Queen’s College, Marian Academy, School of the Nations, Mae’s School, The Bishops’ High, Richard Ishmael Secondary, Westfield Prep, Georgetown International Academy, St Rose’s High, St Joseph’s High, New Guyana School, Tuschen Deaf Academy, Wisburg Secondary, Academy of Excellence, Parfaite Harmonie Primary, St Stanislaus College, and Valmiki Vidyalaya Primary.
The Board of Directors of the GCF expressed its immense gratitude to mmg+ for supporting this auspicious event. mmg+ has consistently supported the advancement of chess among youth across Guyana, and the GCF looked forward to a continued partnership in the future.
The GCF also thanked Queen’s College for providing the venue once again to facilitate the U14 Chess Championships.
The next upcoming tournament, the National U16 Rapid, promises to be even more fiercely contested.
All of the contestants received certificates of participation and tokens of appreciation from mmg+.