THE Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) has selected a team of 22 to compete in next month’s FIDE Cadet and Youth Online Rapid World Cup tournament.
The August 1 – 31 U-18 battle is an official FIDE event, which attracts the best young players from all affiliate nations around the world.

Although the national side has increased by eight players from last year, a number of key players are still missing. “We will miss the contributions of some of our strong players as a result of the irregular examination schedules for NGSA, CSEC and CAPE examinations,” the GCF release added.
It said that the GCF Chess in schools programme is now seeing some of its efforts bear fruit with a wider base of competitors from which to select its national representatives.

TALENTED GROUP
Despite missing a few big names, the players selected are also very talented and have had ongoing training sessions in preparation for events of this nature.
Eight-year-old students Julian Mohabir and Aquilani Swaminadha from the School of the Nations and nine-year-old Nicholas Zhang from Mae’s School will all compete in the Under-10 category.

The GCF noted that the NGSA examination schedule has had a major impact on the Under-12 division.
Omar Sharif from Mae’s School, who has demonstrated remarkable prowess for the last year, is selected as the number one contender in the U-12 Open division. Schoolmates Alexander Zhang and Mahir Rajkumar and Marian Academy’s Micaiah Enoe will join him. In the girl’s division, deaf chess player Anaya Lall has moved up from the U-10 division, in which she competed last year.

In the U-14 Open division, School of the Nations student Emmanuel Primus is the lone competitor. The U-14 Girls’ selectees are Queen’s College student Maliha Rajkumar, who played in this category last year, along with newcomers to the team – St Stanislaus College’s Italy Ton-Chung, Queen’s College’s Nailia Rahaman and Pooja Lam from the Saraswati Vidya Niketan (SVN) School.

The U-16 Open Division will see a seasoned Queen’s College trio led by Kishan Puran. The champion of the qualifying tournament, who has shown remarkable progress over the past year, will be joined by schoolmates Raveon Adonis and Mathew Singh.
The girls’ U-16 battle will feature Queen’s College student Aniyah Couchman and Marian Academy’s Adia Alphonso, who have both been in constant training but will face quality players in that highly competitive category.

In the U-18 Open, Marian Academy Upper Six student Oluwadare Oyeyipo, St Stanislaus College senior Keron Sandiford, and Akili Theophil from the University of Guyana, will take to the board to prove that they are the best juniors in the country.

They will be playing at the highest level, for which they have been preparing over the last 18 months. They have all been competing against the best senior players in Guyana and will have to apply themselves well to advance in this category.

According to GCF, the online event offers the federation, “a unique opportunity for its young players to participate with their peers from other countries at a fraction of the cost,” given that prior to the pandemic, the event was expensive since it was over the board at venues around the world.