Thirteen-year-old Ronan Lee was untouchable over the weekend as he copped the Mae’s Under-14 Mashramani Chess Championship.
Ronan Lee receives his trophy from GCF President Frankie Farley
In seven rounds of the Swiss system, Lee, a student of Marian Academy, stayed true to form to play unbeaten in the tournament with convincing victories over all his opponents. Being one of the oldest players in the competition, Lee remained super focused over the two days (Saturday and Sunday), and looked ready to rise to higher heights in the world of chess.
Trailing closely behind, 12-year-old Neal Rodrigues lost one game and finished with six points for the second position. Hinterland Scholarship student Anasie Fredericks surprised the other competitors, being the best girl on show. Fredericks did well to utilise all the experience she gained from the women’s qualifiers to leave the other girls playing catch up in the tournament.
Although gaining six points similarly to Joel Wong, Fredericks finished ahead of him, based on the point system.
The Mae’s U-14 top three: Ronan Lee (centre); Anasie Fredericks (right) and Neal Rodrigues
While Lee and Rodrigues walked away with the top two trophies respectively, Fredericks bagged the third-place accolade and the award for the most outstanding female player.
The rest of the tournament’s top ten comprised Wong, Marcus Hinds, Joshua Khan, Mayas Khan, Lucas Simpson, Nicholas Zhang, and Matthew Spooner, who finished 4th to 10th respectively.
Marian Academy’s Marcus Hinds, who finished with 5.5 points, copped first place in the Under-12 category. His schoolmate, Isabella Rodrigues was second in the category with five points while Micaiah Enoe was third with 4.5 points, completing the category sweep for Marian.
For the Under-10’s, Mayas Khan copped first place with five points. Siblings Nicholas Zhang and Alexander Zhang completed the podium in the category with five points each.
Six-year-old Aquilani Swaminadha was recognised as the youngest player in the tournament, bagging 3.5 points from seven games.
The Guyana Chess Federation (GCF), in its effort to run off all the age group competitions in a timely manner, has identified Queen’s College as the next proposed venue for the highly-anticipated Under-16 competition. The Under-16 battle will conclude the series of tournaments planned for training and development of junior chess players. After which, the focus will be switched to Guyana’s hosting of the Junior CARIFTA Chess Championships in April. According to the GCF, training sessions will now be expanded as final preparations begin for the CARIFTA Championships, which are slated for the Easter weekend in Guyana. (Jemima Holmes)
