Ethan Lee emerged as the winner of the DeSinco Trading Limited National Junior Chess Qualifiers, which was staged on Tuesday at the National Stadium, Providence, East Bank Demerara
This was disclosed by an official release from the Guyana Chess Federation.
Lee ended the tournament with a tally of 6.5 points after seven rounds. Lee recorded wins over National U16 Girls Champion Anaya Lall, U16 Open Champion Alexander Zhang, Aditi Joshi, Micaiah Enoe, Ronan Lee and Kishan Puran, whilst his only draw occurred in this round 6 match against Keron Sandiford. “This puts Lee as the top contender to rival reigning champion Ricardo Narine, who is poised and ready to defend his title. In 2022, when Narine first claimed the title, the championship had winded down to a tense battle between him and Lee who had tied on points and were forced to go to a play off. But Lee is not the only challenger Narine must prepare for, with the top 9 players in the qualifiers, eager for a chance to win the title of National Junior Champion 2023”, the release stated. Meanwhile, Sandiford clinched second place with six points following five wins and two draws. On the other hand, five points each were recorded by the quintet of Alexander Zhang, Ronan Lee, Nicholas Zhang, Kyle Couchman, Matthew Singh and Oluwadare Oyeyipo, who finished third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seven, and eighth respectively.
The final qualifying berth was sealed by Kishan Puran who ended on 4.5 points. The National Junior Championship, which concludes on July 19th and will also be hosted at the National Stadium, will utilise a round-robin format under the time control of 90 minutes with 30 second increments.
The Junior Chess Championship Qualifiers was supervised by FIDE Arbiters John Lee and Anand Raghunauth. Providing assistance was Candidate Master Taffin Khan.
