CHESS winners for the first five months of 2022, encompassing five major tournaments, received their prizes from the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) at a special awards ceremony on Sunday at the Park Vue Hotel.

The recipients included the podium finishers of the Junior National Chess Championship, the National Women’s Qualifiers, the Women’s Championship, the National Open Qualifiers and the National Championship.

In the Junior National Chess Championship, 17-year-old Ricardo Narine was presented with his championship trophy. Other players rewarded from the Junior event were second-place finisher Ethan Lee, third-place Rajiv Lee, fourth-place Kyle Couchman, fifth-place Keron Sandiford and the next best top five players, Ronan Lee, Sasha Shariff, Matthew Singh, Jessica Callender and Mayas Khan respectively.

In the Women’s Chess Qualifiers, Jessica Callender received her first-place medal, Pooja Lam the second-place medal and Anaya Lall the third-place medal.

The fourth- to ninth-place medals were received by Nellisha Johnson, Adia Alphonso, Maliha Rajkumar, Waveney Johnson, Angel Rahim and Elizabeth McRae respectively.

Meanwhile, Lam received her championship trophy for her win at the Women’s National Tournament. She became the youngest national women’s champion at the tender age of 14 years. The Women’s Nationals were first held in 2018 when WFM Maria Varona Thomas won the inaugural title.

The most recent women’s champion was Sasha Shariff, who came second in this year’s tournament. She had won the title as a 16-year-old in 2020.

Other players awarded trophies from the Women’s Nationals were third-place finisher Johnson, fourth-place Callender and fifth-place Lall.

In the National Open Chess Qualifier, FM Anthony Drayton was rewarded for his win with Wendell Meusa coming in second and Roberto Neto third.

National Chess Champion for 2022, Meusa was presented with his trophy – his eighth national title in Guyana.

Taffin Khan received his trophy for his second-place finish with Drayton third, Frankie Farley fourth and Neto fifth.

Prizes were presented by president of the GCF, Frankie Farley and Tournament Director Irshad Mohamad who commended the players on their exceptional performances.

Due to the time constraint for naming the Olympiad Team for Chennai, India, the GCF hosted back-to-back tournaments over the last three months where FIDE arbiters John Lee and Anand Raghunauth worked tirelessly to make these tournaments successful.

The federation extends heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to DeSinco Ltd, who sponsored the Junior Nationals, KFC Guyana for sponsoring the Women’s Tournaments and Gaico for sponsoring the National Open Tournaments.

The GCF also extended thanks to Mohamed Khan of Arrowten Incorporated and Raul Couchman of Artistic Marketing.