REIGNING women’s champion, Sasha Shariff, emerged victorious in the Guyana Chess Federation U20 Female Chess Competition for the month of October, which was held online on Sunday afternoon.
The 16-year-old won by a slim margin against a strong nine-player lineup. In total, she claimed 5.5 wins in seven games.

Second place went to Angel Rahim with five wins, while Mahlia Rajkumar, also on five wins (but less tie-breaker points) finished third. Aniyah Couchman with a similar amount of wins, but less tie-breaker points than both Rahim and Rajkumar, settled for fourth position.

Despite the stellar performances by the podium finishers, one of the surprises of the competition was that of Adia Alphonso, who was able to upset both Shariff and Rahim. Although she got past two of the better players in the lineup, Alphonso ended with four points, which placed her fifth overall.
Along with her loss to Alphonso, the University of Guyana student, Shariff ,was also held to a draw against Couchman. She, however, claimed wins against Rahim, Rajkumar, Anasie Fredericks and Italy Ton-Chung.

Fredericks and Ton Chung both finished with three points, while Kristin Xavier and Harmony Dodson finished on two points each.
Among the big names missing were the Johnson sisters–Waveney and Nellisha, and Jessica Callender.
Most of the players have been honing their skills with renowned International Chess Master, Atanu Lahiri.

Coach Lahiri is a former Commonwealth chess champion, who has coached and mentored national and international chess players who have won major Indian tournaments as well as World Championships in various categories. The most notable among those players is Grandmaster, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, who won the Indian Championship for six consecutive years.
In Guyana, he is helping the U-20 and U-16 players fine-tune their skills.
Meanwhile, the federation is appealing to all junior chess players and enthusiasts to join its online programme by contacting Marcia Lee on 609-4116 and Anand Raghunauth on 681-8771.