Candidate Masters, Taffin Khan and Ronuel Greenidge remained unbeaten after the second and third rounds of the fourth Guyana Chess Federation Gaico Construction Grand Prix yesterday.
Playing the seven-round Swiss system tournament at the National Stadium, Providence, and Khan handed Glenford Corlette his first defeat in round two.
He was, however, forced into in an evenly contested battle with Shiv Nandalall but 58 moves into the game, Nandalall lost a pawn and eventually the game.
Greenidge handed Davion Mars a second round loss before beating Loris Nathoo in round three.
With both Greenidge and Khan on three points, the two will meet in the top-of-the-table clash in round four next weekend.
Following Mars’ loss to Greenidge, he also tasted defeat in the third round, this time at the hands of veteran Rai Sharma.
Sharma earned the early advantage after winning Mars’ bishop and carried through to win the game.
Nandalall, Nathoo, Sharma and Corlette are all on two points with Adrian Roopnarine beating Joshua Gopaul to end the weekend on 1.5 points.
Over in the Under-12 competition, Mahir Rajkumar played undefeated to secure the title.
Eight-year-old Alexander Zhang settled for second after losing to Rajkumar and fourth placed Neal Rodrigues in rounds three and four respectively.
Rodrigues was defeated by Rajkumar and Zhang.
Zhang’s 10-year-old brother, Nicholas secured third with losses to Rajkumar and his brother.
The Zhang siblings and Rodrigues all ended on five points while Rajkumar’s sister, Maliha, Jacob McDonald, Italy Ton-Chung and Arysh Ragnauth finished with four points.
The fourth round is for Saturday at the same venue from 09.00 hours.
