BLACK Bush Secondary School in Black Bush Polder, Region 6 (East Berbice /Corentyne) successfully defended their Berbice Inter-School Chess Championship title they won last year, by defeating players from 11 other schools that participated in this year’s Championships last month.

Second prize winners were Vryman’s Erven Secondary School while J.C. Chandisingh Secondary took the third place in the team’s category.
With respect to the individual players two of the top three players were from J.C Chandisingh namely Hemchan Naraine who emerged the top player out of a total of 47 players and Deochan Naraine who won the third place, with Darwin London of St Theresa Primary School, separating the two.
Trophies for this year’s tournament were donated by Republic Bank (Guyana) Ltd Rose Hall Branch; Hand-In-Hand Group of Companies; Crown Spot Beverages of Rose Hall Town, Imran and Son and Daughters Rose Hall Town and Magistrate Chandra Sohan and family of Palmyra Village.
The Regional Officer within the Department of Education for Region 6, Shafiran Bhajan, presented the trophies to the winners.
Organiser and Coordinator of the tournament and Committee Member of the Guyana Chess Federation, Krishnanand Raghunandan said the annual tournament, the third of its kind, was held in accordance with the Swiss Format.
He disclosed that this year’s competition saw, for the very first time, participation by students from the Amerindian community of Orealla, located some sixty miles up the Corentyne River.
He said that although the Orealla students, (3 at the Primary and 2 at the Secondary levels), did not win any trophies, they acquitted themselves reasonably well, in light of the fact that the game of chess was introduced to them for the first time  only in March of this year.
Raghunandan credited Steve Leung, a former student of University of Guyana Berbice Campus (UGBC) and school teachers Wayne De France (Comprehensive High School), Dane Grimmond (Vryman’s Erven Secondary) and Joseph Brijbilas (Black Bush Secondary) with being responsible for the huge success that the third annual tournament turned out to be.
Raghunandan also praised the role of the Region 6 Department of Education in facilitating all three of the annual Berbice Inter-School Chess Championships to date by bearing the cost of meals and refreshments and the travel expenses of the student players.
During the presentations, representative of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, Kenneth Pearson, told the competitors that by staying focused on their quest to improve their skills they were utilising an opportunity to elevate themselves as well as the institutions they represented.
He added that the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport will continue to lend support necessary to the Guyana Chess Federation at the central level and to the Administrative Regions at the Regional level, to promote interest and enthusiasm in the game.