Ethan Lee, Rajiv Lee, Ricardo Narine take lead in Junior Chess Qualifiers

Day two of the four-day National Junior Chess Championship Qualifiers, sponsored by Beep Products and DeSinco Ltd, ended with Ethan Lee, Rajiv Lee, and Ricardo Narine taking the top three spots as they work to ensure their places in the National Junior Championship.

All three remain unbeaten for the first four games of the tournament. Ethan Lee faced off against Kyle Couchman in an exhausting four-hour struggle for dominance in the final round yesterday. Solid play from both players led to an opportunistic position for both sides, yet Ethan squeezed a tiny advantage from Couchman as the endgame began. That tiny advantage led the way through a tough and gruelling endgame that took the remaining two hours. Both players’ time had elapsed and they were now playing on the 30-second per move increment. Couchman held out defiantly, attempting to escape with a draw, but Ethan converted the position to a win with seconds on both players’ clocks. Ethan racked up his other wins against Landon Mohabir, Kishan Puran, and Tejasvarun Kandavel in the first three rounds.

Ricardo Narine was paired against his former schoolmate, Queen’s College’s Raveon Adonis in roundfour4. Explosive positions filled with tactics erupted from the very beginning, as the two players fought for an edge against each other. Interesting play from both sides led to even more interesting positions, as one mistake would spell disaster for the player. Alas, Adonis succumbed to the complexity of the position at its peak, allowing Narine to finish the game victoriously with cruel efficiency. Narine won his other points against Javier Davenand, Morven Barran and Anasie Fredericks. Rajiv Lee and Jessica Callender took a different approach than the other players in round four yesterday, as the positional dance for dominance began right after the opening. This game was not won with brute calculation and prediction, but with experienced precision. The two traded into an endgame where Rajiv simply had a better position than Callender, while being up no material. Callender held out valiantly, but the dance ended with Rajiv winning enough material because of his position to claim victory. Additionally, Rajiv defeated Jacob McDonald, Udhyam Lekhraj, and Justin Goberdhan.

On the distaff side, Pooja Lam and Sasha Shariff would have been unbeaten for the first four games and be right up there with the boys, except that the fourth game saw them matched against each other, and ended in a draw. They each amassed 3.5 points. Rounds 5 and 6 take place today at the Guyana National Stadium Providence. Board one features a highly-anticipated game between Ethan Lee and Rajiv Lee; these two veterans of national and international events are sure to put on quite a show. Almost 70 junior chess players are competing in the DeSinco-sponsored tournament from across five regions. Heading into the last few games of the tournament, with so many strong players still to take their shot at the top boards, it’s impossible to guess which 10 players will be facing off for the national title next weekend.
The final round will be played today at 09:30h and an award ceremony will be held at the playing venue at 13:00h. Boards 1 to 6 will be continued to stream live on guyanachess.org and YouTube commencing at 09:30h and at 14:00h each day.