The idea that chess should only be played by a select minority is to be abhorred. I truly believe that there are children out there, perhaps one gifted child, who can cement Guyana’s place on the global stage in this game.
The road to success in chess is long and tedious. There is no universal recipe one could follow to achieve stardom. However, psychologists claim the earlier a child becomes familiar with chess pieces, the more advantageous it is to him or to her. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule but that is the general idea.Once the election of office bearers is completed, the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) can take steps this year to organise tournaments and stretch the game to the Essequibo coast. Guyana’s credibility as a chess-playing nation hinges on our performances. To obtain truly extraordinary performances, the GCF has to make chess widely available across the country. Improved performances will bring additional attention from the World Chess Federation and an increase in local sponsors.
Garry Kasparov, a world champion from the 1980s, wrote: “To play chess on a truly high level requires a constant stream of exact, informed decisions, made in real time and under pressure from your opponent”. Chess is all about making decisions correctly. You can train yourself to make correct decisions on the computer. Nowadays, this is how chess players train themselves to make decisions and win games. In international news, the 4th event of the Champions Chess Tour, the Magnus Carlsen Invitational, is underway and ends today. The idea of the five-tournament series is to celebrate the 60th anniversary of humans reaching outer space for the first time as Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin completed one orbit of Earth on April 12, 1961. Of the 16 participants in the blitz tournament, Norway’s Carlsen, Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi, USA’s Wesley So and the Netherlands’ Anish Giri reached the semi-final stage.
