After eight rounds of heated battle at the chessboards, it all boils down to Guyana (Team 1) versus Trinidad and Tobago today at the Ramada Princess Hotel, Providence, for the right to be called the winner of the inaugural CARICOM Classic Chess Tournament. After rounds seven and eight were completed yesterday, only a couple of match points separated the host nation and their twin island neighbours.
In the morning session, round 7 saw Guyana Team 1 coming up against the Cayman Islands and the hosts proceeded to dominate them. Guyana’s Candidate Master (CM) Taffin Khan continued his unbeaten streak with a win over Clifford Shaw while FIDE Master (FM) Anthony Drayton continued his strong outing with a win over Christopher Young.
On the distaff side, Guyana’s Shazeeda Rahim had victory over Zara Majid while Rahim’s teammate, Jessica Calendar tied with Laia Swaminathan as the Guyanese took the match point by virtue of a 3.5 – 0.5 win.
Trinidad and Tobago on the other hand faced off with Dominica and had a flawless 4-0 win to take that match point as Joshua Johnson, Quinn Cabralis, Ysvett Hermoso and Zara La Fleur all won their respective games.
In the afternoon session, Guyana Team 1 came up against Dominica and by press time, they had all but secured victory in that match with Drayton, Calendar and Rahim securing wins in their matches while Khan was still engaged in battle with his opponent.
Trinidad and Tobago however only had a tie in their one completed game as Cabraliss shared a point with Suriname’s Jason Yeung. The other three games were still underway.
Guyana Team 2, which consists of junior players Aditi Joshi, Keron Sandiford, Kyle Couchman and Sasha Shariff are yet to record a matchpoint and stand 9th out of 10 on the ranking table.
Round 9 begins today at 10 am with Guyana Team 1 facing Trinidad and Tobago for bragging rights while the presentation ceremony is slated for 5 pm at the poolside of the hotel.
