GUYANA’S top junior players will get a chance to qualify for the FIDE Cadet and Youth Rapid World Cup online championships when they battle this afternoon in the qualifiers of the event.
The 14:00h start will have players competing in several age categories, including the U10, U12, U14, U16 and the U18.
According to information from the Guyana Chess Federation, since the competition is online, the country will be well represented.
“The GCF is expected to send 30 representatives to this tournament.” Chairman of the GCF’s Chess-in-Schools Committee, Anand Raghunauth said that the qualifying tournament “will match, as closely as possible, the playing conditions of the FIDE tournament which will give players who have never used Tornelo an important opportunity to familiarise themselves with that platform and associated playing conditions”.

According to information from the International Chess Federation (FIDE), the World Cup will be held in August in two stages.
The Qualifying Stage will take place from August 1-20 where each chess federation can register three players per category (30 players in total) for a 10-round Swiss tournament.
FIDE noted on its website that federations are entitled to apply to the organisers for the wild cards during the registration process.
The Final Stage is set from August 26 to September 1. According to FIDE, this will consist of 10 separate 16-player KO tournaments for Girls under 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 and Open under 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18. “Three top-finishers per category will qualify for the FIDE Online Rapid Super Final 2021. The prize fund of Super Final amounts to €30,000. The players placed 4-8 (5 players) and one highest-rated player (by 01.08.2021 Fide Standard rating) among 9-16th places in the World Cup 2021 per category in each qualifying tournament will advance to the FIDE Online Rapid Grand Prix Series 2021.”

Raghunauth told Chronicle Sport that the online version offers Guyanese players the unique opportunity to test their skills against the best in the world.
“When chess returns to over the board it will be expensive to have these opportunities to showcase your skills.” The GCF has been able to progress its junior programme despite the pandemic, especially with external sessions with International Master Atanu Lahiri. The top Indian chess coach, who is a former Commonwealth chess champion, with stints as head coach of Nepal (2005) and Bhutan (2014) and the Indian Youth, Junior and Cadet teams, has improved the games of numerous young local players. Raghunauth noted that the Qualifiers and World Cup would also be a good yardstick to measure the development of the players. “About nine months ago the GCF embarked on a mission to train 50 of its best juniors in an elite training programme under the Guidance of IM Atanu Lahiri. While many of the players have improved under this training, academic commitments have impacted some who could not continue. The federation will have an opportunity to see the results of the training and how the training has impacted the players.”