Wendell Muesa has won his third chess tournament for the year following his victory in the Sasha Cells eight-round swiss tournament. Muesa is now undoubtedly a strong contender for the national championship title of Guyana. His competition, in my opinion, for the nationals is Kriskal Persaud, the national champion, Taffin Khan, the national junior champion, Loris Nathoo, Shiv Nandalall and Ronuel Greenidge.
These players are the strongest in the country, and therefore the title can be won by any of them. Greenidge has not been playing chess competitively since the year began, but it is reasonable to assume he is training with Fritz 10, the most advanced chess programme available. I last saw him during the visit of grandmaster Rainer Buhmann when he turned up to play in the simultaneous exhibition at the Umana Yana. At that time he informed me he was in training.
This year’s championships promise to be the most rigorous so far since the Guyana Chess Federation was re-established. More people are playing chess than before, and strong players are actually studying the game in preparation for tournaments. Last year, 45 persons turned up to play in the qualification tournament, and this year we expect more players than that. Only seven persons can go forward to the nationals. The national champion is excluded from playing in the qualification tournament. He is seeded without obstruction, straight into the nationals.
During August, the federation will hold a one-day chess clinic for students and teachers on the Essequibo coast in keeping with a promise that was made to Essequibians by the President of the GCF during a visit to Anna Regina by Dr Frank Anthony, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport. The ministry has already distributed some chess equipment to schools on the coast and our mandate would be to teach the game to schools. The federation is optimistic that some students from Essequibo would be able to participate in the National Schools Championships at the end of the year.
The West Demerara Secondary and McKenzie High School clash should take place by September. The match had to be postponed due to the intense preparation by students for the end-of-year examinations.
In August also, the federation will host the last of the DDL sponsored chess tournaments in preparation for the qualification tournament of the National Championships. The federation will be looking forward to see the participation of Ronuel Greenidge, who has chosen to be inactive at the moment. The Meusa-Greenidge-Taffin Khan-Kriskal Persaud-Nathoo-Nandalall clashes will generate lots of interest in the tournament.
The Canadian Open Chess Championship is underway in Edmonton, Alberta. Spain’s Alexei Shirov is the defending champion. He scored two victories in the first two rounds. The Swiss tournament is being played under classical time controls and 203 players are competing, all in one section.
