The National Chess Champion-ships come to a close today with the final two rounds being played at the Ocean Spray Hotel on Vlissengen Road. Both sections are still undecided and it is still anybody’s championship among four players.
Myself and Berbician Kriskal Persaud have a half point separating us, and Ronald Roberts and Taffin Khan have their deciding play-off game this morning. Whichever of the two wins this morning will become the National Junior Chess Champion of Guyana. Kriskal and myself would have to wait a little longer for a result in the evening.
The tournament has been a long and rigorous one, since each player faced his opponent twice, once with the White pieces and the other with the Black pieces. We adopted this format from the recent World Championship Tournament which was held in Mexico City. Each game lasted for three hours, and invariably, every time we sat down to play, it was similar to writing a three-hour examination. One blunder, be it material or positional, and you were history.
In both sections, participants displayed a fair knowledge of chess theory . We saw the Queen’s Gambit Declined being played, we saw the complicated Indian Defences, the Sicilian Defence, the Pirc, the French and the Ruy Lopez. We also witnessed some good endgame technique at both levels.
The surprise of the tournament has been Persaud, who appeared from obscurity and successfully defeated some seasoned players.
