Junior chess players Alexander Zhang and Ricardo Narine are unbeaten and atop of the ranking table in the Moo Milk Junior Qualifiers with four points apiece after four rounds of matches at the Guyana National Stadium over the weekend.
On the other hand, Kishan Puran, Under-14 Girls Champion Aditi Joshi, Sachin Pitamber and Ciel Clement close out the top six spots.
Zhang and Narine are among a field of 70 young chess players pushing to qualify for the 2024 National Junior Chess Championship.
The top ten places in the qualifiers will book spots to play in the National Junior Chess Championships slated to move off on July 26, where a new Junior Chess Champion will be crowned. The ten best performers will face each other over the chessboard in nine fighting matches for the junior title in the upcoming Junior Chess Championship.
Last year’s Junior Champion, Keron Sandiford is now among the adult players and will not defend his title.
With 3 points thus far are Matthew Singh, Kyle Couchman, Treskole Archibald, Maliha Rajkumar, Javier Davenand, Tivon Grant, Alek Ubaldo Singh, Micaiah Enoe, Angelina Yhap, Jeremy Cole, Tremusa Marshall, Tejasvarun Kandavel.
This time around, players from additional schools are participating in the Qualifiers, with newcomers from New Amsterdam Special Needs School, St. Joseph’s High, St. Winifred’s, Dolphin Secondary, and Georgetown Seventh Day Adventist.
The usual suspects in Queen’s College, Marian Academy, Saint Stanislaus College, New Guyana School, Mae’s School, Westminster Secondary, and School of the Nations are all in attendance as well.
The tournament is being monitored by FIDE Arbiter John Lee. The assistant Arbiters are WCM Jessica Callender, Odit Rodrigues, Ethan Lee, and Kim Shing Chong.
Prizes will be awarded to the top ten players, the Best U8, U10, and U12 players.
