Loris Nathoo emerged as the champion of the 2008 Independence Chess Tournament sponsored by Demerara Distillers Ltd under the Topco brand, which concluded Monday at Keishar’s Sports Club.
Nathoo got past many fearsome opponents during his title run, including national champion Kriskal Persaud and president of the Guyana Chess Federation Errol Tiwari.
Veteran player David Khan was the only player who was able to humble Nathoo in his lone loss of the tournament, while Shiv Nandalall managed to force a draw against him.
In one of the most entertaining matches of the final day, Michael Perreira took out four of Persaud’s pawns early, forcing the national champion to offer him a draw.
The final points standing saw Nathoo ahead of the field with six and a half points while Tiwari and David Khan followed close behind with six points a piece and Persaud with five and a half points.
Perreira, Nandalall and Learie Webster all managed five points, while Irshad Mohamed, Frank Farley and Dennis Dillon ended with three and a half points each. Haatram Persaud finished with three points, Michael Webster with two points and a half and Alex Joseph with one point.
Taffin Khan continued to dominate in the junior category, playing unbeaten and ending the tournament with seven points.
Second place went to Cecil Cox who amassed five and a half points followed by Saeed Ali with four and a half points and Kana and Sham Khan with four points each.
Alfred Michael (3), Clevaughn Chesney (2), Dev Ramdayal (2) and the lone girl Sheriffa Ali (0) followed in that category respectively.
After the tournament was concluded cash prizes were handed out to the top five players in the senior category and top four in the junior category while the winner of each category received a plaque.
Nathoo, however, decided to contribute to the development of the sport locally by donating his prize winnings to the Guyana Chess Federation.
