Vast improvement for Junior CARIFTA Chess team

Jarrell Troyer preparing to battle

In spite of a weaker closing round than they hoped for, the Junior Chess team that represented Guyana at the 8th CARIFTA Junior Chess Championships is said to have gained valuable experience, in what was the first Regional or International outing for the majority of the team.
Hoping for a late surge after an impressive fifth round of play, the Chess team were unable to finish strongly, thus missing out on any of the team medals.
In Round five, the team accumulated a whopping 8.5 points. However, in the following round Joshua Khan, Arysh Ragunauth and Mahes Boodhoo were the only players to bag wins while Savir Gookul, Jaden Taylor and Chelsea Juma clinched draws for the teams 4.5 points.
The fourteen member team bettered their performance in the final round, but were still unable to accumulate more than 10 points. Jacob McDonald, Jarrell Troyer, Mahesa Boodhoo and Mahir Rajkumar won their matches, whilst Ghansham Allijohn, Arysh Ragunauth and Angel Rahim salvaged draws for their 5.5 points in the seventh round.
Despite not being able to cop a team medal, the Guyanese contingent, with their overall 36.5 points bettered their 2018 performance by 250%. This improvement was reward enough for FIDE certified Chess instructor Wendell Meusa who spoke exclusively with the Guyana Times Sport.
“I think team Guyana did fairly okay. As I said, we only had three experienced persons on our team. Every other player never played at a regional of international tournament before but our aims were achieved,” Meusa explained.
Disclosing several challenges faced like moving from hotel to hotel and food poisoning which took a toll on the team at one point, Meusa noted that the players held their focus in order to finish off the competition.
“These kids are highly motivated and they battled throughout the time here to do well for the country. It was very tough, for some of them they never saw some openings, positions, gambits and I had a lot of explaining to do,” he said.
One rewarding factor is for the Junior Championships which was hosted in Curacao, is that the members of the team will now receive a World Chess Federation (FIDE) ID and rating that will contribute positively to their regional and international participation in future tournaments.
Arysh Ragunauth, Jaden Taylor and Jarrell Troyer were the outstanding players in thr tournament finishing with 3.5 out of 7 points.
Looking to the future, Meusa disclosed that the 9th edition of the Junior CARIFTA Chess Championships, next year will be hosted here in Guyana. While further plans will need to be implemented in order to host the tournament locally, Meusa is confident that it will be a boost for the Guyanese team. (Jemima Holmes)

the Guyanese Chess team during pre-game preparations