Latest update May 10th, 2024 12:59 AM
May 17, 2022 Sports
– 18 players qualify for National Championship
FIDE Master Anthony Drayton and Jessica Callender have won the National Open and Women’s Qualifiers respectively after four days of intense rivalry at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence.
The tournaments ran concurrently with a start on May 7 and the finale on Sunday, May 15.
Open Qualifiers
Drayton played undefeated to storm to victory, finishing on 8 points after eight rounds. Drayton, a former National Champion himself, will now go on to challenge Candidate Master Taffin Khan for the 2022 National Championship title.
The other eight players in contention are; Candidate Master Wendell Meusa (7 points), Roberto Neto (5 points), Loris Nathoo (4.5 points), Frankie Farley(4.5 points), Ethan Lee (4 points), Rashad Hussain (4 points), Justino De Silva (4 points) and Rai Sharma (4 points) who finished 2nd to 9th place respectively. These players will now move on to the nine-round Round Robin Open National Championship Tournament.
Third place finisher Neto played against sixth place finisher Ethan Lee in round 7 of the tournament. What began as a solid opening led to a four hour struggle for dominance. Tiny inaccuracies plagued Lee’s development into the middle game, which Neto capitalized on intensely. Lee held valiantly, in an attempt to convince his opponent that there was nothing more than a draw in the position as things went from bad to worse.
An accurate piece exchange for multiple of Lee’s pawns was made by Neto, promising an enjoyable endgame. Time had dragged on, and both Neto and Lee’s time had elapsed, leaving both of them to play on the 30 second increment.
Inaccuracies from both sides began to flow, but Lee managed to recapture some of his lost pawns, draining Neto’s advantage and allowing Lee’s extra piece to show its strength. The players agreed to a draw in the end, letting Lee escape from a position that was dead loss.
Women’s Qualifier
Callender finished in first place to win the Women’s National Qualifiers with 7 points. She finished just ahead of Pooja Lam who also managed to earn 7 points but ranked below Callender due to a direct encounter tie break.
In third place was deaf player, 12 year old Anaya Lall, who successfully defeated players such as Adia Alphonso, Maliha Rajkumar and Nellisha Johnson to gain 6 points in the competition. Nellisha Johnson and Adia Alphonso both finished on 5 points to place them 4th and 5th, respectively.
Rajkumar, Waveney Johnson and Angel Rahim placed 6th to 8th on 4 points each. Elizabeth McRae took the final qualifying spot with 3 points. These girls will challenge reigning Women’s Champion 18 year old Sasha Shariff as she fights to retain her title. The Women’s National Championship Tournament will also consist of a nine-round round robin stage.
In round 5, fourth place finisher Nellisha Johnson had the white pieces against the Tournament Champion. Both players began and almost immediately lead into an interesting position. Tiny inaccuracies by Callender led to an excellent position for Johnson right out of the opening with a devastating attack.
Callender defended well and avoided checkmate, but the damage was already done. Johnson was left up the exchange and with a powerful passed pawn, one square away from promotion. The game was converted to a win gracefully, as Callender lost her last piece preventing the passed pawn from promoting.
The game ended in checkmate and as an excellent victory over the tournament champion for Nellisha Johnson.
Nationals
The Open and Women’s National Championships begin on May 21st at the same venue from 9am sharp. It concludes on May 29th 2022.
KFC Guyana is the primary sponsor of this year’s Women’s Championships, while Gaico Construction will be sponsor for the Open National Championship. The Guyana Chess Federation is ecstatic to have the support of KFC Guyana and Gaico Construction and looks forward to a continued partnership.
The Guyana Chess Federation would like to congratulate the players and wishes them every success in the upcoming National Tournament where they will vie for the coveted top positions paving the way for team selection for the 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai, India in July/August of this year.
Women and girls who are interested in learning the game are encouraged to register with the federation on its website guyanachess.org under the Women in Chess Community.
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