KYLE Couchman and Ciel Clement finished as respective winners of the one-day National U14 Rapid Open and Girls Chess Tournament, which was held last Saturday at Queen’s College.
As per norm, the results of the event were under review and officially announced a few days after the event.

Couchman, 12, finished ahead of 31 other boys. He displayed his excellence over the board,, having finished in fourth place earlier this year at the National Junior Championship, where he was also the youngest player to qualify for the event.

Meanwhile, second place went to up-and-coming 12-year-old Micaiah Enoe.
In third place was eight-year-old Aquilani Swaminadha, who played splendidly to also take home the prize for Best U12 chess player in the Open Tournament.

Siblings Julian Mohabir and Landon Mohabir finished as Best Under-10 and Best Under-8 players respectively. The Mohabir brothers continue to dominate in these categories as they both won previously in the National Junior Qualifiers Tournament earlier this year.

On the Girls’ side, Clement from Region Six, who also played earlier this year in the Junior Qualifiers, showed her improved skills by winning the Girls’ category of the U14 Nationals.
In second place was Maliha Rajkumar who has been competing consistently throughout the year. Third place went to Anaya Lall who is set to depart in a few days with the National Chess team to represent Guyana in India at the 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad. Chelsea Harrison was the Best Under-10 girl while Arianna Binda was Best Under-8.

The 40 young players competed in seven rounds of Rapid matches with 15 minutes plus five minutes increments.
Trophies were presented by Queen’s College teacher Ms Henry, who also serves as chess coordinator at the school, along with Chief Education Officer at the Ministry of Education, Dr Marcel Hutson.

According to information from the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF), it continues to offer weekly online classes to students who are taught the basics of chess, various chess tactics and how to solve chess puzzles. The GCF also offers free membership on Chesskid.com to registered students of the federation.
The tournament was conducted by FIDE Arbiters John Lee and Anand Raghunauth.