`IT is believed that the player who starts with the White pieces, begins the game with a slight advantage. Today,all of the top four players secured wins as the Guyana National Junior Chess Championships 2016 commenced at the Ocean Spray Hotel.

On board-one was the highly confident and more experienced player Roberto Neto who outplayed his opponent,Nellisha Johnson,in the Queens Gambit Declined. Johnson made one theoretical error which Neto was quick to pounce on and grabbed two pawns easily in the opening stage. Neto routinely converted his pawn advantage into a full point.

Board-two saw another QGD opening. This time it was veteran junior Saeed Ali vs Aravinda Singh. In this game, Aravinda fell to an opening trap idea and was a piece down in the early stage. With not much fight, Saeed brought home the full point.

Board-three was the game of the day and could have provided an upset. Jaden Taylor, 13yrs old and from Saints,playing with the black pieces should have won his game against WCM Sheriffa Ali.
In the opening,Jaden sac a pawn with which he gained better pawn structure, quicker development and piece coordination. By the middle game, Jaden pieces were menacing White’s position. A moment for three-fold repetition occurred but WCM on the third move avoided the repetition.

By end-game, Jaden had an outside pass pawn but WCM Ali’s fire within was still blazing as she played accurately and solidly until Jaden made that one decisive error to cause him the game.
Board-four saw a Saints Chess Club clash as Joshua Gopaul played Ghansham Allijohn. Both players played solidly in an Italian Game Opening. But Alijohn fell to the famous Bishop trap by the White pawns (c3,b4,a5).