Guyana Chess Federation opens 2019 with tournament

The Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) is set to kick off its 2019 calendar of events with back-to-back tournaments.
The first is a 9-round Open Rapid tournament that will be held today at the National Resource Centre. The time control is set for 15 minutes, with an incremental time addition of 5 seconds after every recorded move.
This event is sponsored by the office of Attorney-at-Law Elias Gentle, in collaboration with the GCF.
Some of Guyana’s top players, both juniors and seniors, namely WFM Maria Varona-Thomas, CM Taffin Khan, Olympiad player and veteran Loris Nathoo, University of Guyana’s 2-time Champion Davion Mars, the National Junior Champion Joshua Gopaul, former National Junior Champion Saeed Ali, Ethan Lee and Andre Jagnandan are confirmed to make an appearance.
It is also possible that an appearance by the current National Champion Wendell Meusa can be expected as well.
The second event is the James Bond Blitz Bash and is slated for February 2 at the same venue. Since blitz has taken quite a popular and central stage amongst modern chess enthusiasts, this event will be expected to produce 12 explosive rounds of entertaining games.
The time format is set for 5 minutes, with an incremental time addition of 5 seconds after every recorded move.
The cash prizes will be sponsored directly by the GCF President James Anthony Bond.
Both events are expected to be quite eventful as they spark a new season in the local chess arena and will be the first GCF co-ordinated events since the conclusion of the Chess Olympiads last November.
Young players and veterans alike will be looking forward to gaining early momentum towards the 2020 Olympiads in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia via laying early claims to successive tournaments’ glory.
Even though, the time controls are of the classical format for the Olympiad games, playing shorter time formats like Rapid and Blitz can aid in a player’s overall time management, and ability to remain confident in his/her ability to play accurately while utilising the incremental time resource when in time pressure.