THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD Pooja Lam played unbeaten to emerge champion of the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) Female Chesskid competition, which was held virtually on Saturday afternoon.
Over a dozen young players competed in the first-ever girls’ online competition, which went over five rounds.
Lam, a second form student of the Saraswati Vidya Niketan School in Cornelia Ida, finished with 4.5 points. She claimed four wins and a draw. The draw was against Italy Ton Chung.
National players, Maliha Rajkumar and Anaya Lall finished in second and third respectively.
Rajkumar finished with four points and Lall on 3.5 points.
Adia Alphonso and Naomi Barkoye were tied on three points each, while Italy Ton Chung and Naila Rahaman finished with 2.5 points apiece. Areanna Singh followed with two points with Alayna Ally and eight-year-old Katelaya Sam registering 1.5 points each to round off the top 10.
The girls varied in ages from teens to as young as eight.