GCF National Championship: CM Meusa, Pooja Lam dethrone defending champions to claim national titles

Open Championship
Candidate Master (CM) Wendell Meusa dominated the Gaico National Open Chess Championship to earn the National Chess Champion title for 2022. He finished the tournament on eight points after nine rounds, just half of a point ahead of former National Champion CM Taffin Khan, who finished the tournament in second place. Meusa’s only defeat came during the sixth round against Roberto Neto (fifth place).

In third and fourth place are FIDE Master Anthony Drayton (6.5 points), who won the qualifying tournament, and Frankie Farley (5 points) respectively. Loris Nathoo, Ethan Lee, and Rai Sharma came in sixth, seventh and eighth with 4.5, 4 and 3 points respectively.

Women’s Championship
In a close contest for the National Women’s title, Pooja Lam emerged victorious. It was still anyone’s game up until the very last day of the KFC Guyana-sponsored championship. Fourteen-year-old Lam took the lead in Round Seven of the championship when she defeated Nellisha Johnson, who had been leading for the earlier part of the competition.

Lam managed to hold her position at the top of the rankings to eventually win the tournament with eight points after nine matches. She suffered no losses throughout the tournament, only conceding two draws – one against former women’s champion Sasha Shariff and another against Jessica Callender, who won the qualifying tournament.
Shariff finished the tournament in second place with seven points. Johnson and Callender both finished on six points, but owing to a direct encounter tie-break, Johnson finished third and Callender finished fourth. In fifth place is 12-year-old Anaya Lall, who won four matches and drew one to finish on 4.5 points. Maliha Rajkumar and Adia Alphonso finished with 4 and 3.5 points respectively, while Waveney Johnson and Angel Rahim finished on three points each.
Players who were victorious in their respective tournaments will be rewarded at an official award ceremony hosted by the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF).
This event was the final qualifying event that served as part of the point-based system inclusive of results from the Grand Prix Tournaments to determine the 10-member team to represent Guyana at the 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad. The team that will represent Guyana in Chennai, India are expected to be announced in the coming week.
The two nine-round, round-robin tournaments concluded on May 29, signalling the end of the back-to-back tournaments hosted by the GCF during the last three months.

The GCF wished to congratulate the winners and thank all participants who played diligently as well as FIDE arbiters John Lee and Anand Raghunauth whose tireless work made these tournaments successful.
In addition, the GCF wished to extend gratitude to the Culture, Youth and Sport Ministry; the National Sports Commission (NSC) and the management of the National Stadium. Special thanks to KFC Guyana and Gaico Construction for their sponsorship were also expressed.