THE Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) will host the STR Wood Inc. National Blitz Championship next Saturday online on the Tornelo.com platform.

The event will have $100 000 in cash prizes up for grabs, with the overall winner receiving $40 000, second-placer $25 000, third-place $15 000 and best female $20 000.
According to information from GCF, the Open tournament will feature nine rounds of Swiss format games with a time control of five minutes with one second added to the clock after each move.

Over 40 players are expected to compete in the one-day event, including defending champion AFM Davion Mars, current senior champion CM Taffin Khan, former senior champion Anthony Drayton, Irshad Mohamad, Loris Nathoo, Frankie Farley, Sherlyta Campayne, Justino Da Silva and Roberto Neto.

Among the junior players expected to compete are defending Junior Blitz champion Keron Sandiford, Ricardo Narine, Kyle Couchman, Jaden Taylor, Kishan Puran and Jessica Callender.

The online tournament, which is scheduled for a 14:00hrs start, will be monitored by FIDE arbiters John Lee and Anand Raghunauth.

Interested players are asked to fill out the compulsory registration form on guyanachess.org on or before next Thursday. Registration fees will be waived for financial members of the GCF while a registration fee of $2 000 is required for non-members.