The Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) have been continuing their lucrative “Chess in Schools” programme with the most recent staging occurring over the past weekend.
On Sunday last (October 11), the GCF rolled out their October online Chess in Schools tournament for Under 16 players. Using the chesskids.com platform, two tournaments were held using the rating system of the platform.
School of the Nations’ Emmanuel Primus
In the rating 1000-1400 section, there were 23 participants, and Emmanuel Primus of School of the Nations emerged winner with 6 points. He was followed by his school mate Nicholas Zhang on 5.5 points, and third place was occupied by Queen’s College female student Mahalia Rajkumar with 5 points. Ethan Persaud played well for a fourth-place finish, while welcome improvement came from eight-year-old Jacob MacDonald of School of the Nations, who finished fifth.
In the second U16 event, in the rating 0-999, Marian academy’s Mayas Khan was the winner with seven straight wins, while Queen’s College female student Anyah Couchman was second on 5.5 points, pipping third place finisher Nathan Gurcharran of Mae’s Schools in a thrilling tie breaker. Queen’s College also copped the fourth and fifth spots in this event, which went to Matthew Singh and Aden Zaman respectively.
The top nine of the second Under-16 tournamentThe top finishers in the first Under-16 event
The tournament was conducted by John Lee, International Chess Federation (FIDE) trained arbiter.
Marian Academy’s Mayas Khan
The Chesskid platform is sponsored by the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) for 100 children to access free of cost. The programme will be extended with more children being trained to compete in tournaments at the national level. The GCF has embraced the online games in the interim as the nation battles with the deadly coronavirus pandemic.
