President of the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) Frankie Farley is looking to take to sport to new heights once the coronavirus pandemic abates.
Farley was elected GCF president in August 2019, defeating James Bond by 13 votes to eight.
Also ousted at that AGM was former president Irshad Mohammed, who had contested a vice president post.
Since then Farley has managed to put together a strong team of chess experts and stakeholders to help him achieve his mission.
He had said to the media, following his election, that one of his aims was to expand the game to all the administrative regions.
Now, in an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sports Farley said the intention is to create an environment which will be conducive to the creation of grandmasters.
At the moment Guyana does not boast a Grandmaster in the sport with Candidate Master Wendell Meusa the highest rated local player with a FIDE rating of 1987 for standard play and 2047 for blitz play.
Guyana at one time was one of the strongest chess countries in the Caribbean with players such as Maurice and Gordon Broomes, Edan Warsali, Patrick Wharton and Ed Greeman acquitting themselves well internationally.
Farley feels that the glory days of Guyana chess could be just around the corner as the country boasts a number of FIDE and Candidate Masters, who are well positioned to improve their rankings, with consistent play at the international level.
“I think the team is positioned to develop innovative social solutions using chess as a tool,” he told Stabroek Sports in the exclusive.
“With the degree of polarization in Guyana today, we have an urgent need to develop solutions that will add value to humanity,” he added.
Farley has so far identified four initiatives which his executive will use to try and improve the chess landscape in Guyana.
They are: – 1. Chess integration into the school curriculum with a regional network architecture that mirrors that of the Ministry of Education.
2. Chess in youth groups.
3. Women in chess
4. Chess for the differently abled
Farley feels that attention to those four areas could lead to more persons playing the sport which could result in higher levels of play.
His GCF was earmarked to stage this year’s CARIFTA Chess championships but the coronavirus pandemic prevented the championships from going ahead as scheduled.
The GCF had also begun the process of trying to identify players to participate at this year’s Chess Olympiad but the pandemic has affected that too.
As it is Farley said his executive is at the moment playing the waiting game (which chess players are quite adept at) hoping that the situation gets better so that they can resume their plans to improve the standard of chess played and in the process, take chess to heights never before reached locally.
