… Shariff leads seniors
SHAM Khan played undefeated in the first four rounds of the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF)-organised Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) Topco Juice-sponsored Junior qualifier which was played last weekend at the Keishar’s Sports Club.
Khan amassed four points from four games to sit one point clear of his nearest rivals in Saeed Ali, Raan Motilall and Carlos Petterson who have three points, while Suhai Feng, Aslam Hussain, Khalid Gajraj, Kana Khan and Faraad Baksh are on two and a half points each.
Rashad Hussain, Crystal Khan, Ryan McKay, Shane Yassuf, Sheriffa Ali and Daryll Calistro have two points apiece, Ron Motilall, Adam Ramnarayan and Viddesh Shameer one and a half and Rajendra Jetoo, Ganesh Persaud and Jason Barnwell one point each.
In the senior category, which is FIDE-rated, only nine players registered and it was decided to play a round robin.  
One third of the players namely Taffin Khan, Shiv Nandalall, David Khan and Errol Tiwari are FIDE-rated and at the end of the tournament the other five unrated players will gain their ratings, extending the number of FIDE-rated Guyanese players to 13.
However, it was Omar Shariff who played brilliantly to defeat Taffin Khan in their second round encounter.
In a well calculated endgame, Shariff was able to promote a pawn to queen, forcing Taffin to resign, before he (Shariff) went on to defeat the older Khan, (David) to secure three points from three games.
Also having a successful tournament so far are Nandalall who has three points but lies second on the tie breaker after getting the better of Dennis Dillon and Errol Tiwari.
Three players are tied on two points each, Taffin Khan, David Khan and Glenford Corlette while veteran player Errol Tiwari, Dennis Dillon and Alex Joseph are all on one point with Learie Webster yet to score.
The tournament continues at the same venue tomorrow for the senior players from 17:45 h while the juniors will continue on Saturday from 15:00 h.