Lee, Narine to battle for National Junior Chess title this Saturday

After nine rounds of intense rivalry over the past five days, there has been a tie for the Junior Championship title. However, only one junior can be crowned this year’s Champion.

In the National Junior Chess Championship, sponsored by De Sinco Ltd., Ricardo Narine, Ethan Lee and Rajiv Lee all finished the tournament on 6.5 points.
The players in first and second places according to the standings will be required to participate in a playoff to decide the National Junior Champion. The playoff will consist of three games with 15-minute, 10-minute and 5-minute time controls. These matches are scheduled for 2pm on Saturday afternoon.
Computerised tie-break systems Buchholz and Sonneborn-Berger were used to determine the top two players who will face off this weekend for the title namely: Ethan Lee and Ricardo Narine.

Kyle Couchman had taken the lead after round 5, but the 12-year-old Couchman, who qualified in 9th place in the qualifiers tournament, was replaced at the top spot when he suffered a defeat against Ethan Lee and drew his matches with Keron Sandiford and Rajiv Lee.
Ethan, who won the National Junior Qualifiers just last week, struggled early on in the competition, and was brutally defeated in the very first round by Matthew Singh. However, he fought hard for an upward progression in the standings by defeating Mayas Khan, Rajiv Lee, Ronan Lee, Kyle Couchman, Keron Sandiford and Sasha Shariff.

Notably, his match versus Sandiford was quite intense, with both players hungry for victory. However, a blunder on Sandiford’s side allowed Ethan to pin his queen, which turned the match in Ethan’s favour.
Ethan’s only draw came against Jessica Callender, when time got the better of him, with Ethan at one point playing with just a second left on his clock.
It all came down to the decisive final round, wherein a win would have meant the coveted title of Junior Champion would go to Ethan. However, his opponent Ricardo Narine came out victorious by the end of their 3-hour match, which he won by checkmate.
Narine’s only losses were against Kyle Couchman and Keron Sandiford, while he drew his match with Rajiv Lee. He defeated his remaining six opponents.
Other players who finished in the top five are Rajiv Lee (6.5), Kyle Couchman (6) and Keron Sandiford (5.5) who placed third, fourth and fifth respectively. Ronan Lee ended on 4 points, Sasha Shariff on 3.5 points, Matthew Singh and Jessica Callender on 2.5 points, and Mayas Khan on 1.5 point.
The Guyana Chess Federation will continue to host tournaments over the coming months, such as the Grand Prix Tournaments, the National Open Qualifiers, National Open Championship, and the National Women’s Championship, from which these results will determine the team for the Olympiad in Chennai, India. Information regarding these tournaments is posted on guyanachess.org and on the GCF’s Facebook page.
The second Grand Prix tournament is scheduled for April 23rd, 24th, 30th and May 1st 2022. Registration is done only online, and the deadline is April 22nd at 5pm.
The GCF wishes to thank its sponsors, DeSinco Ltd, for their assistance with junior chess in Guyana, and looks forward to that company’s continued support.