The opening day of the CARICOM Classic Chess Tournament at the Ramada Princess Hotel at Providence, East Bank Demerara, saw a bag of mixed results for Guyana’s two teams with Team 1, consisting of senior players, securing a win and a draw while Team 2, the juniors, suffered two losses after two rounds yesterday.
In round one, held in the morning, the two Guyanese teams faced off with Team 1 getting the better of Team 2.
Team 1 consists of Candidate Master (CM) Taffin Khan, FIDE Master (FM) Anthony Drayton, Jessica Callendar and Shazeeda Rahim.
CM Khan beat Keron Sandiford while FM Drayton dispatched Kyle Couchman. On the distaff side, Callendar got the better of Sasha Shariff and Rahim won her game against 13-year-old Aditi Joshi.
In round two yesterday evening, the senior players (Team 1) squared off with Jamaica.
CM Khan had the only win, taking a point from Nathan Hinds while FM Drayton and Rahim had stalemates with their opponents, Jhustice McDonald and Krishna Gray. However, Callendar suffered a loss to Adani Clarke to leave things even, as the two sides drew their round at 2 points each.
Guyana’s Team 2 suffered a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Trinidad & Tobago as Shariff and Joshi surrendered a point each to Ysvett Hermoso and Zara La Fleur while Sandiford and Couchman drew their matches against Joshua Johnson and Quinn Cabralis respectively.
Following the two rounds, Trinidad and Tobago are top of the table after winning both of their bouts, the first against The Bahamas (a 3.5 – 0.5 win) and the second round win over Guyana’s 2nd Team.
The Cayman Islands are second after defeating St. Lucia 3-1 and a 2.5-1.5 win over Suriname.
Barbados are third with 2.5-1.5 wins over Suriname and The Bahamas while Guyana (Team 1) are fourth.
Jamaica, St. Lucia, Suriname, The Bahamas, Guyana (Team 2) and Dominica occupy fifth through 10th in that order.
FIDE Deputy President, Grand Master Viswanathan Anand was on hand yesterday to make the ceremonial first move at the second round.
Round three begins today at 10 am with Guyana Team 1 taking on St. Lucia while Team 2 faces Jamaica.
