The Burnham Memorial is still anybody’s tournament

Chess players competing for honours during the 2015 Forbes Burnham Memorial Chess Tournament which ends today at the National Racquet Club on Woolford Avenue. Leaders after three rounds of the competition are Roberto Neto, Anthony Drayton and Taffin Khan.

Within recent years there has been a resuscitation of, and increased interest in chess, with many more annual tournaments sponsored and held than ever before in the history of the game in Guyana. As a result, we have discovered new and fine talent, and the standard of the game has definitely improved. -Forbes Burnham , President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana and the Guyana Chess Association, April 1975

Since the time, when Burnham uttered those refreshing words ‒ at least beginning from the nineties ‒ chess has been meandering casually.