Omar Shariff created the biggest upset of the Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) Topco Juice sponsored chess tournament when he defeated national player Taffin Khan on Saturday at the Kei-Shars Sports Club.
In a well-calculated endgame, Shariff was able to promote a pawn to queen following which Khan resigned their second round encounter.
Not content with defeating the junior Khan, Sharriff also took care of Taffin’s father David Khan, to record three points after three rounds of the senior round-robin competition.
Also having a successful tournament is Shiv Nandalall, who got the better of Dennis Dillon and Errol Tiwari.
Nandalall shares the lead with Sharriff on three points while three players Taffin and David Khan and Glenford Corlette, are tied on two points each.
Veteran player Tiwari, Dennis Dillon and Alex Joseph are all on one point while Learie Webster has lost all three of his matches.
Four of the nine players Taffin and David Khan, Tiwari and Nandalall are FIDE rated players.
In the junior category which serves as a qualifier to select seven players for the National Closed Junior championships, Sham Khan played unbeaten and is in the lead on four points after four rounds.
Saeed Ali is one point behind while Raan Motilall and Carlos Petterson are also on three points.
Suhai Feng, Aslam Hussain, Khalid Gajraj, Kana Khan and Faraad Baksh are on two and a half points each while Rashad Hussain, Crystal Khan, Ryan Mc Kay, Shane Yusuf, Sheriffa Ali and Daryll Calistro are all on two points.
Ron Motilall, Adam Ramnarayan and Viddesh Shameer have one and a half points each while Rajendra Jetoo, Ganesh Persaud and Jason Barnwell have a point each.
The seniors will continue tomorrow from 5.45pm at the same venue while the juniors will next be in action on September 18 from 3pm. (Kizan Brummell)
