The Topco Juices National Qualification Chess Tourna-ment for entry into the National Championship begins today at the Kei-Shar’s Sports Club in Hadfield Street. Over fifty chess players are expected to participate as this remains one of the more popular tournaments organised by the Guyana Chess Federation.
Seven players will go forward to the nationals. Former national champion Kriskal Persaud from Rose Hall has indicated that he would be playing. Taffin Khan would also compete for a place in the nationals along with Shiv Nandalall and Omar Shariff, both of whom played well in the last tournament. According to tournament director Irshad Mohamed, some of the juniors have also signalled their intention to compete in the tournament.
At the time of writing, Ron Motilall from West Demerara had taken over the lead in the Junior Championship from Sham Khan. The standings were: Ron Motilall 4 points; Sham Khan 3½ points; Suhai Feng, Raan Motilall and Cecil Cox, 3 points each and Rashad Hussein and Carlos Petterson, 1½ points each. That tournament ended yesterday at Olympic House where the final two rounds were played.
The GCF felt that the two championships, the Junior and the Senior, should be run separately and not simultaneously, as was done before, since it would give the juniors an opportunity to go for the nationals. Today’s tournament, therefore, may well have a record turn-out. It would be interesting to have the national junior champion playing in today’s competition.
The tournament is a FIDE-rated, one and gives an added incentive for participation, as players will have the opportunity to obtain their international rating points. Chess players locally and internationally are categorized by
their rating points. This would determine their rank in the chess world. The higher your rating points, the stronger a player you are.
The tournament is sponsored by Demerara Distilleries Limited Topco Juices. It is the last of four tournaments sponsored by Topco Juices for 2010.
Kramnik v Carlsen
Following his two losses at the Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, Magnus Carlsen got off to an unfortunate start in the Bilbao Masters in Spain, which ended two days ago. Here he falters against Kramnik in an exciting game.
Kramnik,Vladimir (2780)
– Carlsen, Magnus (2826)
Grand Slam Final Masters Bilbao ESP (1), 9.10.2010
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.Qa4 Bb7 6.Bg2 c5 7.dxc5 bxc5 8.0-0 Be7 9.Nc3 0-0 10.Rd1 Qb6 11.Bf4 Rd8 12.Rab1 h6 13.Qb5N Bc6 14.Qxb6 axb6 15. b3 g5? 16.Bxb8! Raxb8 17.Ne5 Bxg2 18.Kxg2 Rbc8 19.e4 d6 20.Nd3 Kf8?! 21.h3 Nd7 22.f4 Nb8 23.Na4 Nd7 24.Nf2 Ra8 25.Rd2 Ra5 26.Nc3 Nb8 27.Rbd1 Nc6 28.Nb5 gxf4 29.gxf4 d5?! 30.exd5 exd5 31.cxd5 Rxb5 32.dxc6 Rc8 33.Ng4 Rxc6 34.Ne5 Re6 35.Kf3 Ra5?
36.Rg2! f6 37.Nc4 Ra7 38.f5 Rc6 39.a4 Rb7 40.Rg6 h5 41.Rdg1 Ke8.
42.Ne5! Rc8 43.Rg8+ Bf8 44.Ng6 Rf7 45.Rd1. Black Resigns 1-0
