FIDE Youth and Cadet World Cup: Mohabir, Swaminadha pick up wins on penultimate day

It was another productive day for Guyana’s Under-10 Open players in the International Chess Federation’s (FIDE’s) Youth and Cadet World Cup on day 4, as they closed with two more points added to Guyana’s tally.
In Round 8, Julian Mohabir and Aquilani Swaminadha again scored for Guyana by defeating two opponents from the Republic of South Africa.

Youlin Chen opened with white against Julian Mohabir, who responded with a Classical Petrov’s defense, until a blunder on move 19 by Chen resulting in him losing a single pawn, and it swung the game in Julian’s favour.
Julian responded immediately to capitalise on this newfound advantage by exchanging pieces to enter the endgame, and he dominated the encounter until a small blunder caused him to lose a little ground. The game progressed until move 47, when Chen made a fatal miscalculation which led to Julian promoting one of his passed pawns to a queen.
Youlin Chen must be commended for not giving up despite impossible odds, however, he was still checkmated handily by Julian Mohabir with a Queen-and-Rook combination.
Aquilani Swaminadha, who has been outstanding in the tournament thus far, opposed Samuel Driscoll, also from South Africa, in 59-move slogging match.
Driscoll opened with the standard e4 pawn, to which Aquilani responded with his Caro-Kann defense. Both players stuck to opening theory at first until move 6, when Driscol made the first error, which allowed Aquilani to set up an attack on the white King. This, in turn, resulted in his winning a rook and a pawn.
Like his teammate, Aquilani proceeded to exchange pieces to establish an overwhelming advantage with a Knight and two pawns in the endgame. With skill and patience, the Guyanese player outmanoeuvred his opponent to promote one of his pawns to a queen on move 56. Three moves later, it was all over, with the spoils going to Aquilani Swaminadha.
Jacob McDonald and Nicholas Zang unfortunately weren’t as lucky as their U10 teammates. McDonald drew Grayson Po`e-Tofaeono from New Zealand with a rating of 1411, who ranked number 44 in the tournament. Jacob defended as best he could, using the Scandinavian Defense until an inaccuracy on move 10 was enough for the Kiwi to take the initiative for the rest of the game.
Meanwhile, Zhang opened with his Italian Game against South African Johan Eapen for a hectic game, with the advantage swinging from black to white for the first 40 moves, when a small mistake from Nicholas was enough to secure victory for the South African on move 60.
Today’s games will be the last two for the Guyana Under-10 contingent. Thus far, the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) is said to be very impressed with the country’s youngest players, who, at the end of eight rounds, have amassed a total of 10 points.