Guyana in line for podium finish after third win in Round 4
THE country’s senior chess team led by Fide Master Anthony Drayton and Candidate Master Taffin Khan delivered another superb victory for the host, on Tuesday evening, at the Ramada Princess Hotel, in round 4 of the inaugural CARICOM Classic Chess Tournament.

Guyana came up against Suriname who provided good competition in round 4, and the country’s national champion, Khan, who is undefeated in the competition, playing with the black pieces, defeated Shaief Chashawa with white pieces to stay flawless after 4 rounds.

Drayton started off against Jason Yeung whom he overwhelmed.
Shazeeda Rahim also beat Suriname’s Maylee Tjong with Women Candidate Master Jessica Callender losing out to Victoria Kaslan.

The juniors however only managed to salvage ½ points out of their clash with St Lucia as they lost 3 ½ to 1/2.
The ½ points came after Kyle Couchman got a draw against Justin James.
Keron Sandiford was defeated by Arvin Nicholas, Sasha Shariff went down to Tris- Ann Richards and Aditi Joshi was beaten by Chelsea Wahid.

Meanwhile, earlier on Tuesday, in the third round, the seniors edged St Lucia 3-1 while the juniors lost to Jamaica.
On Monday, in the opening round, the seniors got pass their junior
counterparts 4-0.

The second round saw the seniors drawing with Jamaica 2-2 and the juniors
losing to Trinidad and Tobago 3-1.
Guyana is fielding two teams in the competition as the host nation.

The action resumes today (Thursday) with round 5 and 6 at the Ramada hotel with the event concluding on Saturday.
The competition sees teams battling over 9 rounds, the winning nation collects US$1500 dollars with US$1000 for second place and US$500 for third.

The tournament is sponsored by the CARICOM secretariat, ExxonMobil, E-net Guyana, Texila American University, Republic Bank Guyana Limited and DDL’s Topco.
The competition was organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sport, Caribbean Chess Association and world governing body FIDE and the CARICOM secretariat.