Local chess players need more international exposure
The final chess tournament for 2024, a blitz hosted by the Guyana Chess Federation, will be held today commencing at 09:00 hrs at the David Rose Special School, Thomas Lands.
Guyana’s big moment in chess for 2024 was the Olympiad in Hungary. We fielded the finest players we had to offer. We chose our competitors from a series of grand prix tournaments which were created by Loris Nathoo, a director of the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF). It is a fair and accurate system which operates on the accumulation of points, and, fittingly, we chose the ones who came out on top.
Sachin Pitamber, 14, a Queen’s College student, played excep-tionally in the grand prix tournaments and the GCF introduced him to his first Olym-piad. While there, he congregated with the stars of the chess world. Ronuel Greenidge captained the team, but I would have loved to view him as a competitor instead. He is still one of Guyana’s finest chess players.
In the Ladies section, Aditi Joshi, 14, assured us she is there for the long haul, that she is going nowhere, and that she will be a permanent fixture on any future international chess team. Joshi gave a phenomenal display of chess at this year’s Olympiad. She weeded down her opponents one by one and scored her victories and draws in an impeccable fashion. Joshi, Pitamber, Kyle Couchman, and the Zhang brothers, all QC students, appear set to carry Guyana chess successfully into the future.
The biennial Olympiad remains the only tournament where we compete internationally for titles and improved ratings. Rated local tournaments serve the identical purpose of improving ELO ratings, but players face the same competitors over and over again. Guyana’s progress in chess would continue to be slow if players are not exposed to continuous international competition.
