Guyana’s National Women’s Chess Champion Jessica Callender has a slender lead on retaining her title after six rounds of play in the Women’s National Championship.
Callender is ahead by virtue of tiebreak with five points in the Diamond Insurance sponsored 2024 National Women’s Chess Championship.
Hosted at the National Racquet Centre, the nine-round round-robin competition moved off last weekend with ten females vying for Callender’s National title.
On the opening weekend, Callender won against Treskole Archibald, Emma John, Sasha Shariff, Chelsea Harrison, and Parnita Kishun but lost to Nellisha Johnson in the second round.
The second-round duel with the defending women’s champion and Johnson ended in a checkmate to Callender’s King.
After both players had ‘castled’ their King on opposite sides of the board there was an intense battle with Johnson successfully mounting an attack on Callender’s King with her Queen and Rook invading the central tiles.
Callender’s defending Knight was captured in the attack, leaving the undefended King exposed to checkmate with Johnson sealing the victory. Thirteen-year-old Aditi Joshi showed her class with five points after victories against Johnson, Harrison, Shazeeda Rahim, and Emma John. However, Joshi drew with Sasha Shariff and Archibald in rounds three and six.
Johnson and Ciel Clement are tied with 4.5 points, while Shariff and Archibald are on 3.5. Joshi and Callender will clash in Round 9 this weekend in an expected key battle that will ultimately determine the winner of the Women’s Championship. With three remaining matches for both Callender and Joshi, if both players end on the same number of points, a playoff will ensue. The tournament, sponsored by Diamond Insurance, continues today and ends tomorrow. The FIDE-rated competition is being conducted under the supervision of FIDE Arbiter John Lee.
