History unfolded yesterday when the Guyana Chess Federation named the first deaf chess player to represent the country. Her name is Anaya Lall.
Lall is set to represent the country in the girls under-10 category of the International Chess Federation’s Online World Cadets and Youth Rapid Chess Championships.
The young talent was selected based on her performance in the recent online tournaments where she finished as the best local female under-10 player in the Online Rapid tournament with a 21st place finish.
Former national champion and coach, Wendell Meusa spoke highly of the potential he saw in Lall.
He told Stabroek Sport, “She is a young creative, fearless and determined chess player. Great thinker!”
“In 2016 I worked with her through the Deaf Association of Guyana when we hosted a workshop for children with special abilities.
At the end of the event we held a tournament and she won, copping top prizes for Tuschen Special School. I worked with her in 2017, 2018, 2019 and early this year all at the same workshop. We formed the Deaf Chess Guyana and she was one of our top students. She copped medals at the local national junior chess tournaments and twice at the Marian Chess Academy tournaments,” Meusa reflected.
Lall was part of a team down to attend the World Deaf Chess Championship last year in Germany but that did not materialize.
Meanwhile, also set to represent the Golden Arrowhead in the female division are Sasha Shariff in the Under-18 division, Anasie Fredericks (u-16), Mahilia Rajkumar (u-14) and Harmony Dodson (u-12).
Over in the boys division, Kyle Couchman was selected for the under-12s after finishing first in the age group back in January while Arysh Raghunauth was named for the under-10s after also finishing first in his division and being the best under-12 in the junior qualifiers.
Based on February’s championship, Ronan Lee copped first place and secured his place for the under-14s. Rajiv Lee won the junior qualifiers and earned his spot for the under-16s. Ethan Lee was listed as the under-18 representative after finishing fourth in the junior qualifiers which was ahead of his nearest rival. He was also the President’s shield winner. The team captain is Loris Nathoo.
According to GCF president, Frankie Farley, “The selection process…players must have remained active online and tournament ready after over the board chess was suspended due to COVID-19.”
Fraley explained, “Junior chess is in the embryo stages and we have the young players training under the International Master, [Atanu Lahiri] the highest level of training they have ever received. We expect them to play their best at a higher standard than they ever played.”
The GCF president indicated, “Having all this in mind it is their first online tournament at this high level and the experience will make them stronger.”
He noted, “It is exposure and encouragement that is key to their development. We will assess and move forward as we see their progress. Rapid tournaments are not the best to judge skill but it is the 20/20 of chess and it is exciting…it’s an excellent opportunity for our young players to gain valuable experience and raise the level of their game….”
For the tournament, a selection stage will take place between November 27 and December 13 with the finals being played in December 19-23.
In the selection stage, every FIDE Continent will run a seven-round Swiss tournament for each category. Each Member Federation can register one player per each category and players ranked Continental top 10 in each one of the categories is also invited.
The time control for the selection stage will be 10 minutes + 3 seconds increment starting from the first move.
The first three winners per category for each FIDE continent will be qualified for the final stage. This will consist of ten separate knock-out tournaments of 16 players. The 12 players who qualified at the selection stage will be joined by four players invited by the organizer among the first four-ranked in the world for their age group.
Girls
U18 Sasha Shariff
U16 Anasie Federicks
U14 Mahilia Rajkumar
U12 Harmony Dodson
U10 Anaya Lall
Boys
U18 Ethan Lee
U16 Rajiv Lee
U14 Ronan Lee
U12 Kyle Couchman
U10 Arysh Raghunauth
Team captain: Loris Nathoo
