-Trinidad and Tobago leads after four rounds

 

TRINIDAD and Tobago is currently leading the CARICOM Classic Chess Team Tournament after four rounds. The tournament is being held at the Pegasus Suites and Corporate Centre in Georgetown, Guyana.

 

The Guyana Chess Federation, in collaboration with the CARICOM Secretariat, is hosting this second installment of the CARICOM Classic from July 1st to July 6th, 2025. Ten teams from CARICOM nations, including Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Jamaica, Dominica, Suriname, the Cayman Islands, St. Lucia, and host nation Guyana, are competing in the nine-round classical round-robin tournament.

 

Jamaica is in a close second, with Suriname trailing in third place.

 

Sitting in fourth place is the Guyana A team, with Barbados, the Cayman Islands, and St. Lucia close behind. With five intense rounds still to be played, the tournament will be an exciting and challenging test for the competitors.

 

Representing Guyana in the tournament are three distinct teams. The Guyana A-Team features CM Taffin Khan, Kyle Couchman, WCM Aditi Joshi, and Ciel Clement.

 

The Guyana B-Team comprises CM Sachin Pitamber, Keron Sandiford, WCM Sasha Shariff, and Aniyah Couchman.

 

To ensure continuous play and avoid byes in each round, a third team, the Guyana Junior Team, was added. This team comprises of Ricardo Narine, Kishan Puran, Italy Ton-Chung, and Anaya Lall.

 

Round one Highlights:

 

In Round One, Guyana Team A was paired with Jamaica while Team B faced Suriname.

 

In the encounter with Jamaica, Khan and Joshi of the home team scored two draws, while Clement and Couchman went down to the Jamaicans. Couchman lost a Rook in exchange for a weaker Bishop to his opponent FM Shreyas Smith. Faced with numerous threats to his monarch, and unable to improve his weakened position, Couchman accepted the loss. Clement put up a stubborn fight with her Jamaican opponent, Kaia Gayle that lasted 54 moves. The match ended with the fighting Kings and two pawns each per side on the board. Gayle’s Advancing King posed a serious threat to eliminating Clement’s two pawns, resulting in Clement’s loss. In the same round, Keron Sandiford, Aniyah Couchman, WCM Sasha Shariff, and Ciel Clement of Guyana Team B lost their matches to the Surinamese visitors.

 

Round Two Highlights:

 

Pitamber lost his match to Gabriel Sixtus of St. Lucia. Almost all of Pitamber’s chess pieces were captured, leaving his King and a Bishop on the board. The St. Lucian dominated the board with his King, a Knight, and four pawns unopposed and to be promoted. Pitamber finally gave up the struggle on the 50th move.

 

Shariff manoeuvred her King and Queen to checkmate her St. Lucian opponent, Kiara Lambert, in a match that ended on move 51.

 

Round Three Highlights:

 

In Round Three, Surinamese Jason Yeung went down to Khan in a match that lasted less than 40 moves. Yeung was lured by his opponent to capture material and appeared to have secured an advantage. However, Khan skilfully maneuvered his active Bishop to support a pawn march, which overwhelmed Yeung’s Rook and centralised King in the fight. Despite his best efforts, Yeung conceded the loss on move 37. The other three Surinamese team members, Ethan Tjin Kon Kiem, Alexandra, and Victoria Kaslan, drew their matches with their Guyanese Team A counterparts, Joshi, Clement, and Couchman.

 

Meanwhile, Guyana Team B, Pitamber, Sandiford, and female players Aniyah Couchman and Sasha Shariff faced Barbados. Couchman lost to Channon Reifer-Belle after 16 moves in a match that ended in checkmate. Shariff also lost to her Barbadian opponent Lashay Springer, while Pitamber scored a win over Emar Edwards. In an endgame with only Kings and pawns on the board, Pitamber succeeded in promoting one of his pawns into a powerful Queen, creating havoc and forcing Edwards to resign. Sandiford drew his match with Barbadian Kemp Lynch.

 

The CARICOM Classic Junior U16 Tournament is also underway, with Mileke Sinckler from Barbados leading the way with 3.5 points after four rounds, followed by Ravish Ramesar and Ky-mani Wijnhard from Suriname with 3.5 points. Aaron Jaikaran and Noah Clarke, both from Barbados, are on 3.5 points, followed by Guyanese Arysh Raghunauth, and Kataleya Sam on 3 points.

 

 

Suriname’s Thie-Yen Fung and Guyanese Mahir Rajkumar, and Alek Ubaldo-Singh are also on 3 points.

 

Round Four Highlights:

 

Guyana Team B lost to a seasoned Trinidadian contingent featuring FM Joshua Johnson, FM Kevin Cupid, WCM Zara La Fleur and WFM Ysvett Hermoso Rodriguez. Johnson checkmated Pitamber’s King with a final pawn push in a duel that lasted 43 moves. Sandiford faced Cupid in the same round and tensions mounted during their match. In a precarious position, Sandiford resigned his King on move 29, anticipating a winning Rook, Queen and Bishop combination attack by his Trinidadian opponent. Female players Shariff and Couchman also conceded to their counterparts from the twin-island Republic.

 

Guyana Team A was paired with Barbados and was able to score a win and two draws against the Bajans. Khan and Joshi both drew their matches with Emar Edwards and Chanon Reifer-Belle respectively. However, Kyle Couchman defeated Kemp Lynch, but Clement lost to female player Leshay Springer.

 

The Guyana Chess Federation wishes to express its profound gratitude to the generous sponsors whose support has been instrumental in the success of the CARICOM Classic Chess Team and the CARICOM Junior U16 Tournaments:

 

Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, Topco and Savannah Milk, Apan Energy, Industrial Safety Supplies, NTS Amega Global, Movements Family Restaurant, NeuroSpine Services Inc., CB Group of Companies, C&V Shipping, SD&L Accounting, Enet, Guyoil, Queensway Security, Sterling Products Ltd, Power Producers, Marcis and Company, Crown Mining, Nand Persaud and Company, and NK Enterprise Inc. Thanks to the supporters who also donated to the Federation.

 

A special note of appreciation and gratitude goes to the Pegasus Hotel Guyana, our official hotel and the magnificent venue sponsor for the CARICOM Classic 2025.

 

Rounds five and six resume today from 10:00 hours and 16:00 hours.