THE Guyana Chess Federation is set to host the inaugural CARICOM Classic Chess tournament to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Caribbean Community.

The tournament will take place from this Sunday (March 3), to March 10 at the Ramada Princess Hotel.

The tournament is set to field several of the Caribbean’s top senior and junior players.

The local playing contingent will feature FIDE master Anthony Drayton, National Champion Taffin Khan, Jessica Callender, and Shazeeda Rahim for the seniors.

Keron Sandiford, Kyle Couchman, Sasha Shariff and Aditi Joshi are the junior representatives.

The other teams confirmed to attend are from the Bahamas, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.

President of the Guyana Chess Federation Anand Ragnauth says the tournament was created to promote good competition among the regional neighbours, and showcase their talent.

He said, “The idea of the Caricom tournament is to bring together countries of the region, CARICOM countries and associate member countries in a way in which they can compete and establish themselves as chess-playing nations.”

The GCF head says their team has been preparing, adding, “The GCF has a very good team of persons for the past three months preparing for the tournament; our team is highly motivated, skilled and ready to execute.”

The tournament is sponsored by the CARICOM Secretariat, ExxonMobil, E-Net Guyana, and Texila American University, with support from the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sports among other interested parties.

The Swiss format team competition will go for nine rounds.

Meanwhile, the Chess Federation is, this weekend, hosting former five-time world champion and chess Grand Master Viswanathan Anand during their chess festival at Texila American University.

According to Ragnauth, “This is the highest ranked player to grace our shores. His visit will mark the first time a world champion in chess has ever come to Guyana, which is a remarkable opportunity for our chess players to learn to develop their game.”

He says the grand master is also expected to give a guest lecturer at the University of Guyana’s Turkeyen campus on Saturday.

Anand, who became the first Indian grand master in 1988, and has the eighth highest ranking of all time; was in 2022 elected as the FIDE’s deputy president.