Latest update January 17th, 2025 6:30 AM
Narine, Ethan Lee to vie for the crown
DeSinco Ltd. National Junior Chess Championship…
After nine rounds of intense rivalry over the past five days, there has been a tie for the National Junior Chess Championship. However, only one junior can be crowned this year’s Junior Champion.
Ricardo Narine (left) pulled off a victory in the clutch against Ethan Lee to drive the tournament into overtime.
In the Championship, sponsored by DeSinco Ltd., Ricardo Narine, Ethan Lee and Rajiv Lee both finished the tournament on 6.5 points.
The Players in First and Second places according to the standings will be required to participate in a playoff to decide the National Junior Champion. The playoff will consist of three games with 15-minute, 10-minute and 5-minute time controls.
These matches are scheduled for 2pm Saturday afternoon. Computerised tie-break systems Buchholz and Sonneborn-Berger were used to determine the top two players who will face off this weekend for the title namely, Ethan Lee and Ricardo Narine.
Kyle Couchman had taken the lead after round 5 but the 12-year-old, who qualified in 9th place in the qualifiers tournament, was usurped from the top spot when he suffered a defeat against Ethan Lee and drew his matches with Keron Sandiford and Rajiv Lee.
Ethan, who won the National Junior Qualifiers just last week, struggled early on in the competition when he was brutally defeated in the very first round by Matthew Singh. However, he fought hard for an upward progression in the standings by defeating Mayas Khan, Rajiv Lee, Ronan Lee, Couchman, Sandiford and Sasha Shariff.
Notably, his match versus Sandiford was quite intense with both players hungry for victory. However, a blunder on Sandiford’s side allowed Ethan to pin his queen, which turned the match in Ethan’s favour.
A total of 10 players competed for the title of National Junior Chess Champion.
Ethan’s only draw came against Jessica Callender where time got the better of him, with Ethan at one point playing with just a second left on his clock.
It all came down to the decisive final round where a win would have meant the coveted title of Junior Champion would go to Ethan. However, his opponent, Narine, came out victorious by the end of their 3-hour match, where he won by checkmate.
Narine’s only losses were against Couchman and Sandiford, while he drew his match with Rajiv Lee. He defeated his remaining six opponents.
The other players who finished in the top five are Rajiv Lee (6.5), Couchman (6) and Sandiford (5.5) who placed third, fourth and fifth, respectively. Ronan Lee ended on 4 points, Shariff on 3.5 points, Singh and Callender on 2.5 points with Khan on 1.5 points.
The Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) will continue to host tournaments over the coming months such as the Grand Prix Tournaments, the National Open Qualifiers, National Open Championship and the National Women’s Championship, from which these results will determine the team for the Olympiad in Chennai, India.
Information regarding these tournaments can be accessed on www.guyanachess.org and on the GCF’s Facebook page. The second Grand Prix tournament is scheduled for to start on April 23rd then continues on the 24th and 30th before concluding on May 1st, 2022.
According to the Federation, registration can only be done online with the deadline set as April 22nd (today) at 5 pm.
The GCF wishes to thank its sponsor DeSinco Ltd for their assistance with the event and looks forward to continued support.
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