Junior chess players Alexander Zhang and Ricardo Narine are unbeaten and leading the MOO MILK Junior Qualifiers with four points apiece after four rounds of matches at the Guyana National Stadium over the weekend.

Kishan Puran, Under-14 Girls Champion Aditi Joshi, Sachin Pitamber, and Ciel Clement are the players to round off the top six performers currently.

The competition is heating up in the packed tournament hall of almost 70 young chess players making moves to qualify for the 2024 National Junior Chess Championship.

The top ten places in this qualifying tournament will play in the National Junior Chess Championships commencing on July 26th, 2024, where a new Junior Chess Champion will be crowned. The ten best performers will face each other over the chessboard in nine fighting matches for the junior title in the upcoming MOO MILK Junior Chess Championship.

Former 2023 Junior Champion Keron Sandiford is now among the adult players and will not defend his title. A new 2024 Junior Chess Champion will now be crowned at the end of the championship.

With three points so far are Matthew Singh, Kyle Couchman, Treskole Archibald, Maliha Rajkumar, Javier Davenand, Tivon Grant, Alek Ubaldo Singh, Micaiah Enoe, Angelina Yhap, Jeremy Cole, Tremusa Marshall, Tejasvarun Kandavel.

The Guyana Chess Federation is elated to have additional schools participating this year. Some newcomers are New Amsterdam Special Needs School, St. Joseph’s High, St. Winifred’s, Dolphin Secondary, and Georgetown Seventh Day Adventist. Schools that regularly compete are Queen’s College, Marian Academy, Saint Stanislaus College, New Guyana School, Mae’s School, Westminster Secondary, and School of the Nations.

Boards 1 to 11 are being live-streamed for viewers at home and monitored by FIDE Arbiter John Lee. The assistant Arbiters are WCM Jessica Callender, Odit Rodrigues, Ethan Lee, and Kim Shing Chong.

Prizes will be awarded to the top ten, the Best U8, U10, and U12 players.

The federation thanked MOO MILK for sponsoring the tournament and for their unwavering support of junior chess in Guyana as well as the Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sport for facilitating the venue for the tournament.