This weekend, the National Chess Championships of Guyana will be decided. Kriskal Persaud and myself are ahead of the field, but we must keep on winning to maintain our chances of becoming the champion.
The two of us clash this morning in our second game at the King’s Plaza Hotel. We drew our first game. Kriskal caught my King out in the open and checked continuously so as to prevent me from queening a passed King Rook pawn.
Kriskal is in pristine condition as evidenced by the ease with which he is winning his games. Andre Griffith is the only player who has been able to defeat him so far in the tournament.
Loris Nathoo is having a good tournament. He has lost only to the top players of which he is also one. Irshad Mohamed is at the bottom of the cross table but scored resoundingly against Griffith and Ronuel Greenidge. This game was a scorcher. Mohamed handled the French Defence like a professional and his finish was simply astounding (See game).
In the Junior Section, either Ronald Roberts or Taffin Khan will emerge victorious. Roberts is an unknown to us, but he plays clean, excellent chess. Khan, on the other hand, has played in a few tournaments and his results were fair. His quality of play has improved and he stands a very good chance of taking the championship among the juniors.
