I was replaying some games from the National Qualifiers Tournament that was held to identify entrants for the 2024 National Chess Championship which began yesterday. First of all I was thrilled to witness a few females participating in the Qualifier tournament. This is a first for Guyana. There was never separate male and female chess tournaments beginning from the early 1970s when the Guyana Chess Association was established.
The game between the National Junior champ Keron Sandiford and Ronuel Greenidge was a Queen’s Indian defence that lasted for 22 moves and ended in a draw. Greenidge played black and employed the moves 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. c4 b6 and the light squared black bishop goes to b7. Black aims to control the critical d5 and e4 squares with a knight on f6 and a bishop on b7. While there are a few variations to the Queen’s Indian defence such as the Fianchetto and Kasparov variations, it remains an excellent opening choice for black. It was a favourite for world champions Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov, and super-grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi in their heydays.
The 18-year-old Indian grandmaster Leon Luke Mendonca favours the Queen’s Indian and describes it as a solid foundation for your black repertoire against 1. d4. It was one of Anatoly Karpov’s favourite weapons.
Apparently Greenidge has been doing some reading alongside the games of the old masters, especially the world champions of yesteryear who enthusiastically chose the Queen’s Indian defence against 1. d4.
A complimentary feature of Mendonca, other than being a 2640 grandmaster, is that he is also a promising young chess trainer. He won the Challengers tournament at this year’s Tata Steel Tournament and, therefore, he will graduate to the Masters Tournament in the 2025 
edition. There he will clash with the finest proponents of the game including the world champion. One of the items which grandmasters have recommended, is that you replay as many games as possible with your favourite defences, to familiarise yourself with various pawn structures, and various positions that would emerge from those defences.
Greenidge, perhaps, has been attending to these functions.
