SASHA Shariff has emerged victorious in the Diamond Insurance Women’s Chess Championship Qualifiers, finishing with 6.5 points after seven rounds of play. She is one of ten players who will now advance to the Nationals to pursue the coveted title of National Women’s Champion.

Shariff is the lone player heading into Nationals who has held the title before. She reigned as National Women’s Champion from 2020 to 2022, until current champion Pooja Lam usurped her last year. With Lam unable to defend her title this year due to commitments in her academic studies, Shariff is now the player to beat when the round-robin Women’s Nationals commences tomorrow at School of the Nations.

The 19-year-old Shariff is by far one of the most seasoned competitors in the event. She holds the title of UG Chess Queen – the top female player at the University of Guyana. She has represented Guyana at the Batumi Olympiad in 2018, the Chennai Olympiad in 2022, and many other international chess competitions.

Coming in second in the qualifying event is National Under-16 Champion Anaya Lall. As is usually the case for Lall, she is the only deaf chess player competing. And once again, it has not swayed her on her steadfast path to victory. She finished the tournament with 5 points, her only loss being her match against Waveney Johnson.

She drew her games with Aditi Joshi and Italy Ton Chung. Lall has also graced the international stage for Guyana in the International Chess Championship for Persons with Disabilities and in the 2022 Olympiad in Chennai. She is definitely a player to watch in the Nationals, having come in 5th in the last year’s Nationals.

Third place went to former under-14 Champion, Ciel Clement, also on 5 points but ranking lower than Lall through the Sonneborn–Berger tie-break employed in GCF Swiss-system tournaments.

Waveney Johnson is fourth with 4.5 points after losing against eventual champion Shariff, stalemating a winning end-game position against Vienna Bharosay and drawing her games with Jessica Callender and Aniyah Couchman. Adia Alphonso and Couchman ranked fifth and sixth with 4.5 points each.

Callender, Aditi Joshi and Chelsea Harrison all finished on 4 points to take seventh, eighth and ninth positions and will advance to the Nationals. The final qualifying spot went to Italy Ton Chung with 3 points.