Alexander Zhang won the Open category and Kristin Xavier the girls’ division when the
DeSinco-sponsored National Under-12 Rapid chess championships concluded Saturday.
The online championships, hosted on the Tornelo.com platform, was a seven-round Swiss system affair.
The format involved a time control of 15 minutes with a two-second increment with every move – supervised by FIDE Arbiter John Lee, a release from the Guyana Chess Federation stated.
Zhang ended with six points from five wins and two draws against Nicholas Zhang and Arysh Raghunauth.
Alexander Zhang’s game against Raghunauth saw the players agreeing to a draw with Zhang having insufficient pieces for an outright win and Raghunauth low on time.
Nicholas Zhang finished second with 5½ points, only losing to Mayas Khan who secured the third-place spot with five points.
In the under-10 Open category, six-year-old Landon Mohabir’s five points finish guaranteed him the title.
Adam Rahaman and Alek Ubaldo–Singh were second and third respectively.
In the under-eight category, Vir Narine was the winner with Javier Davenand second.
Girls’ Tournament winner Kristen Xavier defeated all her opponents including Anaya Lall, whom she defeated in a tough encounter.
Lall was a close second with six wins, her only defeat being to the overall winner while eight-year-old Kataleya Sam was third with five points, losing to Xavier and Lall.
Skyler Gurchuran was the winner of the girls U10 category with Nemisha Jagmohan second and Saudia Deo, third.
The girls’ Under-8 female winner was Isabella Shariff.
Notable games from the tightly contested Open category came from Jacob Frank Mcdonald, Mahir Rajkumar, Arysh Raghunauth, Julian Mohabir, Tejasvarun Kandavel, Omar Shariff, Ethen Pompey and Vivek Persaud while in the girls’ tournament, impressive displays came from Alayna Ally, Faraa Gaskin, Ariana Munroe, Daivya Jagmohan, Aditi Joshi, Athena Gilkes, Mira Kivik and Neeharika Shetty.
A total of 45 competitors (16 girls and 29 boys) under 12s participated in the tournament.
