After seven rounds of intense chess games across three days, FIDE Master Anthony Drayton emerged at the top of the pile undefeated with six points on Saturday to be crowned the winner of the Guyana Chess Federation’s (GCF) National Championship Qualifiers 2024.
Playing at the National Racquet Centre on Woolford Avenue, Drayton defeated CM (Candidate Master) Ronuel Greenidge in their seventh round match-up to secure full points. While Justino DaSilva also finished the tournament on six points, Drayton had the advantage by way of a superior tie-breaker. Drayton accumulated a tiebreaker of 27.5 while DaSilva had 24.
The latter defeated Kyle Couchman in their matchup, while Keron Sandiford had a draw with Gilbert Williams.
Meanwhile, Loris Nathoo and Sachin Pitamber both recorded wins over Matthew Singh and Ricardo Narine, respectively.
Challenging for a top-nine finish, Aditi Joshi suffered a loss to Ethan Lee on the day, missing out on qualification to the National Championship.
Roberto Neto, who managed to finish in third place, got the better of Rai Jagat Sharma to finish with an overall points haul of 5.5.
CM Greenidge, Sandiford, Pitamber, and Nathoo all finished on 5 points apiece to place fourth through seventh in that exact order after varying tiebreaker points sorted them out.
Couchman and Lee took the last two spots, finishing in eighth and ninth places, respectively.
The nine will be joined by defending champion Taffin Khan in the single-round Robin 2024 National Championship, which is slated to begin on June 1 at a venue yet to be announced.
