FIDE Youth and Cadet World Cup: Lall, U16 & U18 spring into action

Hearing-impaired Chess player 11-year-old Anaya Lall will be among the next group of Guyanese youths set to compete in the International Chess Federation’s (FIDE’s) Youth and Cadet World Cup, as she features in the Girl’s Under-12 category.
Lall, who also featured in last year’s tournament, will join Queen’s College boys Kishan Puran, Raveon Adonis and Matthew Singh who will participate in the Under-16 Open event. Oluwadare Oyeyipo of Marian Academy, Keron Sandiford of Saint Stanislaus College and Akili Theophil of the University of Guyana will be participating in the Under-18 Open division.
These players are scheduled to represent Guyana over the next five days as they do battle with the best in the world in each category.
Entrance into this elite tournament has been made possible through the online nature of the event, which was introduced in 2019 due to the global pandemic. The Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) has been able to enter 22 players in this year’s tournament, following a qualification tournament. Players were also drawn from the GCF’s “Chess in Schools” programme, which is funded in part by FIDE.
The Chess in Schools programme has been expanding locally, and the GCF, in turn, is drafting plans to enter more elite tournaments and continue to offer opportunities to train beginner, intermediate and elite players throughout Guyana.
The implementation of an expert trainer in International Master Atanu Lihari has already yielded favourable results in this year’s tournament, with victories earned by the Guyanese Children over several FIDE-rated players, which is being viewed as the prelude to creating a pool of FIDE-rated young players in Guyana.