DAVION Mars is focussed on attaining his second consecutive overall chess victory when he competes in today’s National Blitz Chess Championship, which is scheduled for the Guyana National Stadium, Providence. The 25-year-old, who was crowned champion of the 2020 National Rapid Chess Championship on Sunday told Chronicle Sport that he is hoping to make it two in a row. “I’m pretty confident going into the competition.” Both Rapid and Blitz are faster versions of classical chess. Blitz is however at an express level, which brings new dimension to strategy and often ends via time.  Mars, who is UG’s three-time champion (2017-2019), said that he prefers Blitz to Rapid, but is cognizant that there are several strong Blitz players, including Roberto Neto and veteran Rai Sharma.

Some of the younger players, including Joshua Gopaul who defeated Mars last Sunday en route to the Junior Rapid title and Jayden Taylor who is the defending junior Blitz champion, will also look to make their mark. Another player, South African Uddhav Bagwandeen is also in form and could create an upset in the senior division. Bagwandeen won six of his nine games on Sunday to finish second in the Senior Rapid Championship.  FIDE Master Anthony Drayton is the defending National Blitz champion, but up to yesterday afternoon his participation in today’s competition was unknown. Tournament Coordinator Rashad Hussain was instrumental in organising the over-the-board competition last Sunday and is confident that today’s event will also go off smoothly.

He said that he expects about 20 persons to compete, although only half had officially registered up to yesterday.
“I would like to thank the other executives of the Guyana Chess Federation for allowing the restart of over-the-board tournaments to conclude this crazy year. We are not yet back to full capacity. However, players are excited and back to serious training. I’m happy that chess made a restart in 2020 and look forward to a more productive New Year.”
Today’s FIDE rated competition has both Open and Junior divisions and should be played over nine rounds via the Swiss System. The first pawn will be moved at 13:00hrs and players will battle with a time control of eight minutes and a two-second increment.