In a simple ceremony on Friday the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) rewarded the winners of the 2019 National championships at the National Resource Centre, Woolford Avenue.
Among the winners were FIDE Master, Anthony Drayton, who played unbeaten in the Swiss System tournament to win the Open male category
And Maria Varona Thomas who won the Open female category.
Candidate Master, Taffin Khan, finished second in the Men’s Open category while Loris Nathoo, Roberto Neto and Kriskal Persaud rounded out the top five.
Shivanand Nandalall and Saeed Ali were sixth and seventh respectively while last year’s champion, CM Wendell Meusa, opted to abstain from the tournament.
Comfortably, Guyana’s top female player, Woman FIDE Master, Varona-Thomas maintained her dominance in her division, taking the Women’s Championships.
Up and coming young talents, Chelsea Juma and Nellisha Johnson gave good accounts of themselves to finished on five points each but a tie-breaker saw Juma taking second. Samirah Gobin, Sasha Shariff, Angel Rahim, Waveney Johnson and Aneesa Hussain ended in that order.
Meanwhile, in the Sasha Cells Junior Championship, Andre Jagnanadan marked his debut with a win ahead of Ghansham Allijohn and Rajiv Lee. Ethan Lee finished fourth while Jayden Taylor, Juma, Joshua Gopaul and Jarrel Troyer took the remaining spots in that order.
The GFF, in a release, thanked the Director of Sport, Christopher Jones and the National Sports Commission, Sasha Cells and Trophy Stall for their contributions.
