MINISTER of Culture, Youth and Sport (MCYS) Dr Frank Anthony yesterday called on the governing bodies for chess in their respective countries, to organise a Regional chess tournament.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF)-organised, FIDE chess-rating tournament in the conference room of the Guyana National Stadium, Dr Anthony said such a tournament would better foster relationships among the chess-playing fraternity in the Caribbean. “We have to start working with our Caribbean counterparts to see how we can set up a regional title for competition, so that we will have the opportunity to play against other players who are perhaps more versatile and experienced.
By those encounters, we ourselves would then be able to acquire experience and know how to be able to perform more competitively in future tournaments and such exchanges are vital to the game of chess.” said Dr Anthony.
He continued to state, “We need to create the competition. There are not enough regional chess competitions available, so we should help create such competitions. If we look around the Caribbean, you have a regional competition for football, cricket and other disciplines, why is it we cannot create one for chess?”
The Minister said that together the players and administrators can work towards creating a regional chess competition and probably in the not-too-distant future persons can see the emergence of such a competition.
Dr Anthony lauded the GCF for their numerous achievements over the past three years, which saw them move in the right direction wherein the public saw constant improvements in the game of chess.
“Over the last three years, we have seen the GCF start from an interim body, move to formalise itself as a federation then make the move to get back into the FIDE family and I think these are significant steps.
“Achieving these things over such a short duration is not an easy task. But I think the leadership of the GCF has shown perseverance and because of that perseverance, they are where they are today, which is a part of the FIDE family.”
He continued to state how such a move is integral to local chess players, who are now afforded the opportunity to compete in international events, and this is another significant achievement by the GCF.
A notable absentee from yesterday’s brief opening ceremony was president of the GCF Errol Tiwari, who according to Dr Anthony, is in The Bahamas dealing with matters relating to chess in the Caribbean.
“That alone is another significant step, as the GCF is moving to have Guyana’s presence felt as a chess-playing nation in the Caribbean.”
He said that the development of chess in Guyana cannot be done just by playing among ourselves, but rather have our players compete against players who are ranked internationally, wherein our players would then be weighed on the global scale.
“FIDE has certain rankings and the only way to test the strength of our players is to get them to play against a person who already has that type of ranking and that is why we are having this tournament under the guidance of a FIDE adjudicator.
Our players’ strength will be tested and in the end, they will be able to achieve a ranking in the international system and when we have our own ranked players and they play in local tournaments, the other local players can have a fair sense of their strength as well and this is a multiplying effect, with our local players being the beneficiaries,” stated Dr Anthony.
Prior to Dr Anthony’s brief remarks, treasurer of the GCF Shiv Nandalall welcomed the four FIDE-rated players to Guyana on behalf of Tiwari and the GCF.
“The GCF has been growing from strength to strength with the aid of regional players and I hope it would be a warm experience to have the visitors here competing against us.”
The four players, namely Michael Barker of Barbados who has a FIDE ranking of 1729, Trinidad and Tobago’s Hayden Lee (1869), Suriname’s Romario Sanches (1972) and Martinique’s Kailbic Rupon (2065) would be doing battle against their Guyanese counterparts at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence.
Heading the Guyanese contingent for FIDE ratings are Nandalall, Louis Nathoo, Taffin Khan, Ryan Singh, David Khan and Ronuel Gravesande.