Intense competition anticipated as chess players gear up for Nat’l C/ships

Sep 16, 2009 Sports

Chess players gearing up for participation in the imminent national championships are advised that the national qualification tournament, a prerequisite for selection, gets underway at the Keishar’s Sports Club, Hadfield Street Brickdam, this Saturday, September 19 and concludes on Sunday October 4. Interested participants are encouraged to be a part of this process.

Players would battle for honours in the junior and senior categories and the top seven finishers in the senior category would qualify for the national championships as against the top eight junior finishers.

National champion, Kriskal Persaud earns automatic qualification by dint of his status while former junior champion, Taffin Khan, is now playing among the seniors after age constraints forced him to vacate that title.

With Taffin’s departure, selecting a junior champion is indeed a difficult task especially since there have been spirited performances among the players in this category. Those to watch are Cecil Cox, Saeed Ali, Sham Khan, Kana Khan, Roshad Hussain and Davindra Singh.

A keen contest is also envisaged among the senior players who have all been preparing ardently for the competition. Wendell Muesa, who has consistently demonstrated a high level of consistency ever since he returned from Barbados sometime last year, is highly favoured to win the tournament while players like Loris Nathoo, Taffin Khan, Shiv Nandalall and Learie Webster all stand a good chance of carting off the spoils.

The players would be in action on Saturdays and Sundays and each player will be allotted 1/1/2 hours to complete his game.

Eligible players must be Guyanese by birth or naturalization.