National Under-14 Rapid Chess Tournament set for Saturday
The Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) is set to host the Under-14 Nationals on Saturday, July 16 at Queen’s College.
The National Under-14 Rapid Chess Tournament was last held in February 2020 at Mae’s School, where Marian Academy’s Ronan Lee was victorious a total of 75 students from 12 schools. Lee has since aged out of the division. Players expected to be competing for the national title include Kyle Couchman, Mayas Khan, Julian Mohabir, Nicholas and Alexander Zhang, Omar Shariff, Pooja Lam, Anaya Lall, and Maliha and Mahir Rajkumar.
Women’s champion Pooja Lam (left) v QC student Maliha Rajkumar
The young players will face off in seven rounds of matches from 09:00h to 16:30h. The time control of the matches is 15 minutes with added five-second increments. All Guyanese chess players who were under the age of 14 on January 1, 2022, are encouraged to take part. Some of these youngsters have been competing against far more seasoned players for the earlier part of the year and while they sometimes excelled, this tournament provides them with an opportunity to compete against others in their age group.
GCF Vice President Anand Raghunauth said: “Many of the young boys and girls look forward to the shorter version of chess. It’s a faster game.
“The younger players like to play quickly. It’s an exciting game, the entire tournament finishes in one day. It’s a fun tournament even though it’s a serious competition. We have some young players who have just completed Grade Six exams, I’m sure they will be looking forward to returning to chess. We have many of the seasoned players who have been competing over the past three to four months with the adults and with the older junior players, and they also will be looking forward to having a go at each other and I’m sure it’s going to be an interesting tournament.”
Kyle Couchman and Matthew Singh
The Federation had a large influx of new junior players earlier this year owing to the extensive work done on the Chess in Schools programme. As a result, a large turnout is anticipated for this weekend’s matches. Interested persons can register through the GCF’s website – guyanachess.org. Registration closes on July 15 at 17:00h.
No late registration or in-person registration will be facilitated. Trophies will be awarded for first, second and third places in both open and girls’ categories along with the best Under-10 and Under-8 at the end of seven matches.
