—foreign chess players arrive for battle with locals
By Donald Duff
Over the next couple of days the National Stadium at Providence will be the venue for a battle of the minds between the top chess players of Guyana and the rest of the Caribbean.
Instead of sixes and fours, dropped catches and other cricket terms, the Providence Stadium will be the venue for opening gambits, passed pawns, and complicated middle and end games played out on a board with an equal number of black and white squares.
Four chess players from the Caribbean arrived in Guyana yesterday ready to battle with the local players this morning following an opening ceremony at 9.30 which is expected to be attended by Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony.
The players are Karl Rapon, Cassanova Romario Sanches, Hayden Lee and Michael Barker and they will oppose six local players in a single round robin tournament aimed at arriving at international rankings for the local players following a lengthy period when the sport and the Guyana Chess Federation were dormant.
Rapon, from Martinique, will be the highest rated player in the tournament with a FIDE rating of 2065.
The other players’ ratings are Sanches (Suriname) 1972, Lee (Trinidad) 1856 and Barker (Barbados) 1729.
Assistant Tournament Director Irshad Mohammed last night told Stabroek Sport that the one round tournament will be enough for the local players to receive FIDE rankings.
The Tournament Director (Arbiter) will be Surinamese Aubrey Kappel. Kappel told Stabroek Sport last evening that he was no stranger to Guyana having come here during the 1980s to participate in chess tournaments most notably the Guyana Open.
Kappel said he can recall playing against the Broomes brothers, Maurice who was a national master and younger brother Gordon.
Kappel said it was possible to arrive at international rankings for the local players.
“At the end of the tournament we will try to determine their ratings,” he told Stabroek Sport in an invited comment.
The six local players are Shiv Nandall, Taffin and David Khan, Ronuel Greenidge, Loris Nathoo and Ryan Singh.
National Chess champion Wendell Meusa already has an international (FIDE) rating.
Two rounds will be played today with the first round commencing at 10am.