FORMER National Champion and FIDE Candidate Master (CM) Wendell Meusa registered three wins over the weekend to remain unbeaten at the end of the Gaico Construction-sponsored Guyana Chess Federation Fide-rated seven-round Swiss tournament.

The competition concluded yesterday at the National Racquet Centre in Woodford Avenue, Georgetown with Musa registering a win against previous leader, Taffin Khan.

The FIDE instructor finished with 6.5 points. His only blemish was a drawn clash against Glenford Corlette in the third round.

In their battle on Saturday, CM Khan played with white and attacked with e4 and Meusa answered with the Sicilian Dragon Accelerated Variation (without d6). However, Khan opted away from the main line and went for the early sideline with e5, which saw Meusa gaining strategic advantages.

Meusa told Chronicle Sport that the game was tense and long and said that it was theoretically drawn, but although Khan offered him the draw, he decided not to accept. It proved to be the correct decision, as Khan was unable to implement the right defensive plan in the latter stages of the clash.

On Sunday, in rounds six and seven, Meusa defeated Justino DaSilva and Shiv Nandalall.
Khan, who finished second on six points, got past Joshua Gopaul and Corlette in those rounds.

Loris Nathoo, who lost to Nandalall on Sunday morning, but defeated DaSilva in the afternoon, and Davion Mars, who beat Errol Tiwari in the morning and Ethan Lee in the afternoon, finished tied for third on five points.

Meanwhile, Nandalall, Colette and Frankie Farley were tied for fifth on 4.5 points, while Joshua Gopaul, DaSilva, Lee, Saeed Ali, Chino Chung and Rai Sharma ended on four points each.

Although 27 players started the seven-round (originally eight) competition last weekend, only 18 played the last three rounds, as many of the children opted to play in a junior competition that took place at the same venue.