The annual Kei-Shar’s sponsored chess tournament is currently being contested at the Kei-Shar’s Sports Club on Hadfield St. After three rounds of the eight round swiss system tournament, National Champion Kriskal Persaud and Dennis Dillon share the lead with the maximum three points. The highlight of last Sunday’s play was the clash between Persaud and Taffin Khan, Guyana’s junior chess champion. The two champions met previously during the DDL Topco Juice Mashramani chess tournament when Taffin overwhelmed his opponent with a series of good moves. This time, however, Kriskal played less exuberantly and kept a clear head to win the game and take the full point. Dillon, on the other hand, played impressively to defeat Webster and his other opponents. The three final rounds of the tournament will be played today at the Kei-shar’s Sports Club.

All should be involved in making chess a national pastime

The momentum for the recognition of chess in Guyana has been rising steadily over the past months much to the appreciation of members of the federation. We have been successful in our efforts to introduce the game into some schools, and we have witnessed an increase in the number of persons who play competitive chess.

The Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) has intensified its training programme in schools for the Easter holidays. GCF Tournament Director Irshad Mohamed has been moving around quite a bit recently. Last week, he worked at the Bishops’ High school giving chess instruction to the students. Some fifty students of the school have benefited from his expertise and experience. Mohamed teaches chess every Saturday after lunch at the Oasis Cafe in Carmichael Street, and has held a number of tournaments at that venue. Kids can learn to play the game at the Oasis any Saturday between 1 pm and 5 pm. In the photo above, Bishops’ students engage in some friendly encounters during one of Mohamed’s training sessions.

The number of participants in tournaments recently has been fluctuating, but generally speaking, the numbers have been increasing. And it is encouraging to note that more adolescents are gravitating towards chess and thereby reassuring us that we are making some progress with the development of the game.

There is a word of caution, however, for us optimists who believe that chess is progressing rapidly within the schools and to some extent, in a sprinkling of communities here and there. We are pleased to teach you the game and give in-depth instruction from time to time, but the responsibility is with you, the people, the youths, the schoolteachers, the sport administrators, the veteran chess players, to continue the process of promoting the game countrywide. The federation does not have the manpower, nor the time, to fulfil all the requirements necessary for the continuous teaching of the game in one distinct school, or one distinct club, or even to a distinct set of people. We have to keep moving on. We have to honour our programme of spreading the game as widely as possible.

In simple terms, when we teach you the game, we are graciously requesting that you teach the game to someone else − a relative maybe, or a friend perhaps. Only by honouring such a system will we grow and increase in number. And herein lies the importance of teaching chess to student teachers at the Cyril Potter Teacher Training College. Teachers come to the Turkeyen college to be trained from all the ten regions of Guyana, and afterwards, return to their communities. When they return to their homes and their schools, we want those teachers to carry chess with them. Need I say more? This might just be the most important programme which the federation has embarked upon.

There is another side to the coin. When the federation leaves a location and moves to another, it expects its more advanced students to take the place of the former instructors. If this does not happen, there will be no more chess classes, and eventually, the game will die. Our efforts at the federation would have been wasted, and your efforts as participants would also have been wasted. We are all involved. Our tiny efforts, combined with your tiny efforts will eventually become a national effort. The federation’s obligation to you, the people, is to inspire the promotion of the game. Your obligation to the nation, is to facilitate the process. The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport’s obligation to all of us is to assist us with the removal of those obstacles which would confront us during our long and tedious journey towards making chess a national pastime. We are all involved.

The federation was pleased last week when Carl Veecock, now residing and teaching chess in Canada, presented three chess sets and some instructional material to the Albouystown Chess Club. Veecock said he had been following the progress of chess in Guyana via the internet, and what he read, stimulated him to become involved in a tangible way.

Meanwhile, the final three rounds of the Kei-Shar’s Easter chess tournament will be played today starting at 10 am at the Kei-Shar’s Sports Club on Hadfield St. National Champion Kriskal Persaud and Dennis Dillon are the joint leaders in the tournament.