A Guyanese junior contingent on August 12 participated in a worldwide Under-11 online chess tournament and placed sixth.
The tournament was organised by Worldwide Junior Chess.
The Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) was represented by five junior players in Ethan Persaud (Marian Academy), Omar Sheriff and Mahir Raj Kumar (Mae’s School Primary Division), and Julian Mohabir and Aquilani Swaminahda (School of the Nations).
It was young Omar Shariff who captured the spotlight for the locals by spearheading Guyana’s showing after accumulating five wins from ten games to amass 10 points. Ethan Persaud followed with eight points (4 wins).
Swaminahda and Raj Kumar each scored six points (3 wins each) while Mohabir got four points (2 wins). Those performances ushered Guyana to sixth place overall ahead of teams from Slovakia, Italy, Russia, and Bahrain.
Taking the cake in group C1 was Argentina, Egypt, Germany (Team A & B), South Africa all of whom came ahead of Guyana. The next event will start in two weeks and Guyana is expected to have a larger number of participants.
The U-11 tournament saw the participation of 90 chess clubs from over 50 countries with a total of over 360 children contesting in nine different groups. Meanwhile, the GCF has begun pushing its online events due to the pandemic crisis. The federation kept its players active via daily online tournaments through FIDE and on various chess platforms via the internet. Against all odds, chess players are able to also train online and compete with players worldwide more easily.
