Emerging stars Sachin Pitamber and Kyle Couchman emerged victorious in the Rapid and Blitz segments, respectively, of the Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships on December 30th and 31st at the School of the Nations building on New Market Street.
This was disclosed in an official release from the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF). According to the correspondence,
Pitamber, 13, recorded an impressive 8.5 points out of a possible 9 points to secure the top spot and $50,000 winner’s prize in the open category of the Rapid Tournament on December 30th. FIDE Master Anthony Drayton ended in second place with eight points, while Justino Da Silva copped third place with 6.5 points. Drayton and Da Silva pocketed $30,000 and $20,000, respectively, for their efforts. The Best Female prize of $20,000 was captured by 14-year-old Ciel Clement.
Similarly, Couchman emerged victorious in the Blitz section after ending on 7.5 points. The 14-year-old pocketed $20,000. Keron Sandiford ended up in second place with 7.5 points, while Da Silva completed the top three with seven points. Sandiford and Da Silva received $15,000 and $5,000, respectively. The best female winner of this event was Aditi Joshi, who received $5,000.
Meanwhile, in the U20 Rapid Chess category, Ricardo Narine emerged as the winner with a score of 7.5 points and pocketed $30,000. Sandiford finished in the silver medal position owing to a tiebreaker after also accumulating 7.5 points. Alexander Zhang clinched the third position with seven points.
Sandiford and Zhang walked away with $20,000 and $10,000, respectively. The Best Female Award in the U20 division was also won by Joshi, who pocketed $10,000.
According to the correspondence, in excess of 25 players competed in both tournaments, stating, “For context, rapid and blitz chess games have the same rules as classical chess, but each player has much shorter time limits to score victories. Chess players were each allotted 15 minutes with five-second increments and 5 minutes with five-second increments for the respective events. For both competitions, the open category contested was for first, second, third, and best female positions. The Under-20 category contested for First, Second, Third, and Best Female positions.”
