The Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) made its first move of the year with the opening round of the National Chess Championships Saturday at the National Stadium, Providence.
The first round witnessed a handful of match ups with the usual suspects coming out victorious.
Among those were Candidate Master Taffin Khan, who defeated Errol Tiwari and FIDE Master Anthony Drayton, who got the better of Rai Sharma.
“I played the Closed Sicilian variation. The game was about equal until move 16 where Mr. Tiwari missed a combination that I had which lead to him losing his Queen. After that, I just followed basic chess,” Khan said in an invited comment.
Drayton too, found the going easy against the veteran player Sharma.
“My first game in the championships against Rai Sharma wasn’t that difficult even though it finished in 46 moves and, in light of the new chess movie, Queen’s Gambit, I chose the very same weapon as my first game opening choice and by the eighth move my opponent gave up the bishop pair and blundered a pawn at the very next move.”
He added: “After that it was smooth sailing until the game finished. It was only after the game and reviewing it I realised that I too made a critical blunder at move 16 which could have cost me the game by losing a piece but lucky for me my opponent was playing very fast and didn’t capitalise on it.”
Looking ahead, Drayton said, “In the coming matches I will have to keep my focus to be able to regain my title because the other players wouldn’t be so kind to miss an opportunity like that….”
In the other contest, Loris Nathoo and Davion Mars played to a draw while the clash between Candidate Master Wendell Meusa and Glenford Corlette was postponed until tomorrow.
