“The annual general meeting, of which at least four weeks prior notice shall be given, will be held not later than March each year.” – Constitution (Rules) of the Guyana Chess Federation, as approved at a general meeting on March 26, 1972
March has ended. For the second year in a row, Guyana is without a constituted body in chess. When the rules were established in 1972, and amended on March 30, 1975, they stated unambiguously, “The constituted body shall now be called the Guyana Chess Federation.” If there is no constituted body, there can be no Federation. In 1972 when the rules were devised, the entity for chess was known as the Guyana Chess Association. In 1975, the constitution was amended to read the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF). The name has remained to this day.
The failure of the body to hold its annual general meeting, at which members of the executive committee are elected, for two years, is disappointing, to put it mildly and kindly. Naturally, the Federation was not in a position to submit its proposed programmes to the National Sports Commission, which included its financial statements and international budgetary activities. Naturally, chess was excluded from the 2016 budgetary allocations which were delivered to those associations which were compliant with the Sports Commission regulations.
However, in the face of such incessant administrative turmoil, chess has been fortunate to benefit sumptuously from local well-wishers and even from FIDE, the governing body of world chess. One lesson to be discerned from such actions, is, perhaps, the public at large has an interest in the upliftment of the celebrated mind game. I find it embarrassing, therefore, to expose the indecent pitfalls of the Federation. I take no joy in doing so, but in juxtaposition to that thought, the column is committed to state the facts and to comment whenever it becomes necessary for the benefit of a literate public. Moreover, active chess players like Rashad Hussein and Keith Simpson, to name two persons, in addition to other members of the chess fraternity, keep wondering when the situation will return to normalcy. Again this is referring to the current displeasing situation courteously.
I engaged Irshad Mohammed, president of the GCF, about such an irregular and distasteful situation during February’s Mashramani chess tournament. Mohammed disclosed that he was having the “books audited” and that further, he would name a date in March for the next annual general meeting. Unfortunately, that was not to be and the date continues to be blowing uncertainly in the wind.
Chess players are correctly concerned about a 50th anniversary Independence Chess Tournament to be held during the month of May. There can be little excuse for failing to host such a vital tournament. Word is circulating that a sprinkling of Guyanese chess behemoths are planning to make the trip to Guyana and participate in a likely tournament. If the Federation would not host a tournament for the anniversary celebrations, perhaps it would be gracious enough to make the clocks, chess boards and chess pieces available to someone who would be willing to do so. I find it difficult to actually believe that our 50th anniversary would be allowed to pass without a substantial chess competition.
In 2014, an election year for FIDE, although Guyana’s certification had lapsed (meaning as denoted by the 1972 Constitution, we failed to elect new office bearers, or re-elect the same, at an annual general meeting) we went ahead and voted for the candidate of the Federation’s choice anyhow. For the 2014 Chess Olympiad which was held in Tromso, Norway, startlingly, the Federation certified Wendell Meusa to travel as coach for the Guyana team. Certainly, I am not aware that coaches travel to chess Olympiads. There is no time to teach. According to FIDE regulations, Meusa was not allowed to play for Guyana owing to an infringement in the rules governing participants. Meusa is aware of this existing difficulty and I hope he is taking steps to correct this anomaly since he is a strong player and Guyana’s strength was depleted owing to his absence from the playing table in 2014. Taffin Khan, Guyana’s No 1 chess player, could not make the trip, thereby compounding Guyana’s woes. For this year’s chess Olympiad to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, I am hoping that Khan makes the trip and Meusa does whatever is required of him to qualify to represent Guyana. But first the two must qualify, among others, who must be given an opportunity to do exactly that. Only then can you enlist the best of the best to represent Guyana.
An underlying criticism of participants playing tournaments is that the nature of the prizes are hidden from them. No one seems to know what the prizes are and if and when they would be delivered. Even in the ongoing Candidates tournament the computer is busy calculating who would win what as the players’ fortunes change. In local dominoes, the prizes are announced publicly before the tournament begins. In local chess it is not so. Actually, one is left to wonder whether prizes would indeed be distributed. However, the tournament fee is usually collected in full before the games get underway.
On the international scene
The electrifying war of the minds is heating up between the USA and Russia. At the time of the writing of this column, the US had jumped into the lead of the elite Candidates Chess Tournament. An awesome 1.2 billion people are monitoring this tournament which will identify a challenger for Norway’s world chess champion Magnus Carlsen. Fabiano Caruana sacrificed a piece to seize the initiative from Indian grandmaster Vishy Anand and defeat him. Caruana joined Russia’s Sergey Karjakin at the pinnacle of the points table with four rounds left to play. Anand had three wins, more than any participant of the tournament. But he also had two firm losses. Caruana and Karjakin had two wins each from the 14-round tournament, but no losses.
Chess games
The following games were played at the 2016 Candidates Chess Tournament currently underway in Moscow which seeks to identify a challenger for world champion Magnus Carlsen.
White: Viswanathan Anand
Black: Peter Svidler
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. a4 Bb7 9. d3 Re8 10. Nbd2 Bf8 11. c3 Na5 12. Bc2 c5 13. d4 exd4 14. cxd4 d5 15. e5 Ne4 16. axb5 axb5 17. Nxe4 dxe4 18. Rxe4 Nb3 19. Rxa8 Bxa8 20. Ng5 Nxc1 21. Qh5 h6 22. Qxf7+ Kh8 23. Rg4 Qa5 24. h4 1-0.
White: Levon Aronian
Black: Hikaru Nakamura
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.Qc2 c5 6.d5 exd5 7.cxd5 Bb7 8.Bg2 Nxd5 9.O-O Nc6 10.Rd1 Be7 11.Qa4 Nf6 12.Nh4 O-O 13.Nc3 g6 14.Bg5 Rb8 15.Bf4 Rc8 16.Bh6 Re8 17.Qf4 Na5 18.Nf5 Bxg2 19.Nxe7+ Qxe7 20.Kxg2 Qe5 21.e3 d5 22.Bg5 Ne4 23.Rxd5 Qxf4 24.gxf4 Nxc3 25.bxc3 Kg7 26.Rd7 h6 27.Be7 Nc4 28.Rad1 a5 29.R1d5 Rc6 30.Ra7 Re6 31.Rdd7 Kg8 32.h4 Kg7 33.Bd8 Kg8 34.Be7 Kg7 35.Rab7 Kg8 36.Rbc7 Na3 37.Bd8 Nc4 38.Be7 Na3 39.Rb7 Nc4 40.Kf3 a4 41.Rbc7 Nd2+ 42.Rxd2 R6xe7 43.Rc6 Re6 44.Rxe6 Rxe6 45.c4 Kg7 46.e4 Re8 47.e5 Rb8 48.Rd7 Kf8 49.f5 gxf5 50.Kf4 b5 51.cxb5 Rxb5 52.Kxf5 a3 53.f4 Rb4 54.Ra7 c4 55.Rxa3 Rb2 56.Ra6 Kg7 57.a4 c3 58.Ra7 c2 59.Rc7 Rb4 60.a5 Ra4 61.Rxc2 Rxa5 62.Rc4 Ra1 63.Rc7 Kf8 64.Rd7 Ra4 65.Rd3 Rc4 66.Re3 Ke7 67.Re4 Rc1 68.Rb4 Kf8 69.Rb6 Kg7 70.Rb7 Kf8 71.Rb8+ Kg7 72.Rb4 Ra1 73.Rd4 Ra2 74.Rd7 Kf8 75.Kf6 Ra6+ 76.Rd6 Ra8 77.h5 Kg8 78.f5 Rb8 79.Rd7 Rb6+ 80.Ke7 Rb5 81.Rd8+ Kh7 82.Kf6 Rb6+ 83.Rd6 Rb7 1-0.
White: Fabiano Caruana
Black: Sergey Karjakin
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.b3 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Be7 7.Nc3 d5 8.cxd5 exd5 9.Bg2 O-O 10.O-O Re8 11.a3 c5 12.dxc5 bxc5 13.Ne5 Bb7 14.Bf4 Nbd7 15.Nc4 Nb6 16.Na5 Ba6 17.b4 cxb4 18.axb4 Bxb4 19.Nc6 Bxc3 20.Nxd8 Bxe2 21.Qb3 Bxa1 22.Rxa1 Raxd8 23.Rxa7 Nc4 24.h3 Bh5 25.Bg5 Bg6 26.Bxf6 gxf6 27.g4 Kg7 28.Qc3 d4 29.Qxc4 d3 30.g5 d2 31.gxf6+ Kh8 32.Bf3 Be4 33.Kh2 Bd5 34.Qg4 Rg8 35.Bd1 Rxg4 36.hxg4 h6 1/2-1/2.
White: Hikaru Nakamura
Black: Veselin Topalov
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 Bf5 5. Nc3 e6 6. Nh4 Bg6 7. Nxg6 hxg6 8. Rb1 Nbd7 9. c5 a5 10. a3 Be7 11. g3 e5 12. Bg2 e4 13. b4 axb4 14. axb4 Nf8 15. b5 Ne6 16. Bd2 O-O 17. Na4 Ng5 18. h4 Nf3+ 19. Bxf3 exf3 20. bxc6 bxc6 21. Nc3 Bxc5 22. dxc5 d4 23. exd4 Qxd4 24. O-O Qg4 25. Re1 Rfd8 26. Rb2 Rd4 27. Re7 Rad8 28. Qb3 Rf8 29. Qd1 Rfd8 30. Qb3 Rf8 31. Nd1 Nd5 32. Re5 Kh7 33. Kh2 Nf6 34. Be3 Rb8 35. Qxb8 Rxd1 36. Rb1 Qd7 37. Rg5 Ne4 38. Rxd1 Qxd1 39. Qf4 1-0.
