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Female National Chess Championships get underway today at Resource Center -Georgetown Chess Classics to run concurrently
Maria Thomas
The Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) will be hosting two tournaments this weekend including for the first time in its chess history, the Female National Chess Championships.
The event is slated to kick off today at the Guyana National Resource Center (opposite Passport Office & Guyana Technical Institute).
This prestigious event will be played as a six rounds tournament with a time control of one hour sudden death and the top five finishers will be eligible for the Guyana Female National Team that will be representing Guyana from Sept 22 – 1st Oct, 2018 at the World Chess Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia.
As planned, this is the federation’s first step towards the development of Guyana’s female chess players. The federation will be aiming at increasing the total number of women who play chess locally, while providing them with the countless opportunities associated with the game.
The tournament’s favorite will be Guyana’s first FIDE Master and highest rated female, Maria Thomas, who is vastly experienced and has been ramping with the top 5 players of Guyana for the last 5 years. Also, participating in this event is Guyana’s only female Candidate Master (CM) Sheriffa Ali, who was part of the female National Team at the last World Chess Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan. She will be battling FIDE Developmental Coach and local lawyer Yolander Persaud who was also part of the last female team in Baku. There will also be the more experienced Shazeeda Rahim fighting for her place in the National Female Team.
However, young rising stars such as 12-year-old Chelsea Juma of St. Stanislaus College and 14-year-old Sasha Shariff, who both just returned from the seventh Carifta Chess Championships where Guyana was represented for the first time and are determined to make their mark among the big girls.
A keen eye will be kept for the Johnson’s sisters Nellisha and Waveney, Cassandra Khan, Sharara Gill and hopefully the return of the Clementson sisters Jessica & Julia.
While the women will be clashing, GCF will also host the Georgetown Chess Classics concurrently. This event will be organized for various regions across Guyana but begins in Georgetown. Top male players Anthony Dratyon, Taffin Khan, Loris Nathoo, Ronuel Greenidge are expected to participate as they prepare for the World Chess Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia. The Georgetown Chess Classics is set to bring some live actions on the chessboards since other players such as Davion Mars, Glenford Corlette, Chino Chung, Roberto Neto, Saeed Ali and Veteran Errol Tiwari will be looking to defeat the players of the elected national team.
Rounds will begin at 10 am on both days and all games will be played in accordance to FIDE (World Chess Federation) rules and regulations.
Visitors and viewers are welcome. Registration fee is GYD $1000 and interested persons can contact Tournament Director Mr. Irshad Mohammed at 664-1650 or Tournament Assistant Anthony Drayton at 613 – 2083.
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