Chess with Errol - Page 21 of 34

Will Carlsen remain top gun?

The FIDE World Chess Championship match between the current world champion and Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen and his Russian challenger Sergey Karjakin begins on Friday in Manhattan, New York.

World chess champion Magnus Carlsen (left) and his challenger for the title Sergey Karjakin. It’s the first time two players who have come of age in the computer era are fighting for the title; this represents a generational shift in chess.

Carlsen schools chess hustlers in Washington Square Park

Bobby Fischer, America’s most successful chess player, contested a fair number of chess blitz games in Washington Square Park, Manhattan.

Eleven-year-old Indian chess master beats Paraguayan grandmaster

The South American grandmaster from Paraguay, Axel Bachmann (2645), was confident as he faced the lad from India during the final round of the competitive Isle of Man International Chess Tournament last Sunday.

Norwegian chess grandmaster and current world champion Magnus Carlsen, 26, will defend his world championship chess title next month against Russia’s Sergey Karjakin, also 26, in New York. One week following the conclusion of the 2016 Chess Olympiad, Carlsen played a simultaneous handicap match against 11 hand-picked opponents in New Jersey as a warm-up exercise. Each of his opponents had 30 minutes per game, while the world champion had 30 minutes for his total eleven games. Carlsen won handsomely 11-0. In the photo, Carlsen replays one of the games of his opponents from memory.

Chess world anticipates Carlen, Karjakin showdown

For the next two months, the eyes and minds of the chess world would be focused on the world chess championship title match.

Maria Varona-Thomas (in photo), qualified for the international chess title of Woman FIDE Master at the 42nd Chess Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan, two weeks ago. It was the first major title for a female chess player from Guyana. Maria contested the required 11 games on Board One for Guyana and scored victories against fellow board one players from the following countries: Tanzania, Aruba, Chinese Tai Pei, Sudan, Fiji, Barbados and Palestine. She drew with Qatar and Wales. Maria lost against Zambia and Singapore. She placed 21st from a total of 663 women participants at the Olympiad.

Maria Varona-Thomas should be commended for her exemplary performance in Baku

Hardly anyone expected Guyana to qualify for a major international chess title.

Varona-Thomas becomes first Woman FIDE Master

Cuban-Guyanese Maria Varona-Thomas has become the first Woman FIDE Master (WFM) from Guyana, following her successful participation at the 42nd Chess Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Haifeng Su, in photo, one of Guyana’s successful chess players at the conclusion of round six of the 42nd Chess Olympiad in Azerbaijan. There are five rounds yet to be played in the competition. Su, playing board No 4, scored victories against opponents from Guatemala and Fiji, and achieved draws with representatives from Guernsey and Malta. Taffin Khan, playing board two, also garnered 3 points for Guyana with two wins and two draws (a win = 1 point; a draw = 1/2 point; a loss = 0 point). Guyana played Bermuda on Friday in its 7th round match.

India takes the lead

Following the conclusion of round six of the 42nd Chess Olympiad currently in progress in Baku, Azerbaijan, India’s men have taken the lead ahead of such behemoths as Russia, the US, China, Ukraine and the Netherlands.

The culturally rich opening ceremony of the 42nd Chess Olympiad took place in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Thursday evening. A number of Azerbaijan’s renowned artists, choreographers and composers lent their artistry to what could be described as a grand spectacle. The ceremony featured some aspects of the chess tradition in Azerbaijan. Guyana is there with a male and female chess team among the 181 nations that are participating. In the photo, our female team highlights the Guyana flag which was carried during the ceremony. From left, Jessy Clementson, Sherrifa Ali, Yolander Persaud, Maria Thomas and Julia Clementson.

Guyana is represented at the 42nd Olympiad

These young guys are playing checkers. I’m out there playing chess.

Guyana team leaves for Baku Olympiad

The Guyana Chess Olympiad team leaves for Baku, Azerbaijan, this week to attend the 42nd Chess Olympiad.

Roberto Neto, 19, (left) is a member of the 2016 Guyana Olympiad chess team. A newcomer to the game, he enjoyed some robust successes by defeating the senior and junior national champions on occasion. Although he only began playing the game in 2010, Neto has been competing regularly in tournaments and has become a prominent fixture in competitions. In this photograph, he faces St Stanislaus’ student Gansham Alijohn in a recent tournament.

So wins Sinquefield Cup

The intriguing Sinquefield Cup, the elite grandmaster chess tournament which featured seven of the world’s top 10 players has been completed, with a resounding victory for the US’s Wesley So.

Guyana’s Chess Olympiad players will have opportunity to see grandmasters in action

Following six rounds of scintillating chess, the Sinquefield Cup is off to a brilliant start in St Louis, Missouri.

Yolander Persaud, 25, has been named captain and player of the 2016 Guyana Women’s Chess Olympiad team by the Guyana Chess Federation. Persaud accompanied the Guyana Olympiad chess team to the Tromso Olympiad in 2014. She attended the Instructors and Arbiters’ seminars in Tromso where she qualified for a Development Instructor’s licence and was awarded a FIDE Arbiter International Certificate following her success in the FIDE examination.

World class players at Sinquefield Chess Cup

“Once every four years, the world goes to war. They call it the games.”

Guyana's national chess player Anthony Drayton (left) opposes a Jamaican colleague during the 2014 FIDE-sponsored Umada Cup which was held here. Drayton had just returned from the 2014 Chess Olympiad in Tromso, Norway, where he achieved the coveted Candidate Master title. He is representing Guyana at the 2016 Chess Olympiad in September in Baku, Azerbaijan where he will seek additional honours on behalf of himself and his country and himself.

Popular arguments against having chess in the Olympics don’t hold up

The mind game of chess was among 26 sport disciplines which had applied for recognition as an Olympic Sport at the 2020 Games in Tokyo.

Representing Guyana at the 2016 Chess Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan, is Jessica Clementson, 20, founder of the Georgetown-based U-Knighted Chess Club. The U-Knighted Chess Club has its origins in the School of the Nations where she was a student. Clementson learnt to play the game in 2009, and has experience teaching chess to underprivileged kids in the Albouystown area. She represented Guyana at the Inter-Guiana Games and the School of the Nations in the National Inter-Schools Championships.

Carlsen, Karjakin play to disappointing draw in Masters final

The final game between world chess champion Magnus Carlsen and his world championship challenger Sergey Karjakin ended disappointingly in a draw after 19 moves at the 2016 Bilbao Masters Final in Spain on Thursday.

Students of St Stanislaus College kibitzing (playing chess for fun) on a cloudy Sunday afternoon at the National Resource Centre during the recent Andrew Arts Memorial chess tournament. The students on the right are: Ghansham Alijohn, John Wong and Jessica Callendar. On the left, playing the black pieces, is Jaden Taylor. Standing next to him is senior member of the Guyana Chess Federation David Khan.

Nakamura defeats Carlsen in Masters shocker

Six of the finest chess players on the planet, led by world champion Magnus Carlsen, are doing battle in the Masters Final in Bilbao, Spain.

Taffin Khan, winner of the Andrew Arts Memorial Chess Tournament which ended last weekend

Chess enjoying unprecedented boom

Chess is enjoying an unprecedented boom in the capital city much of it because there was open criticism over the manner in which the 2016 Guyana Olympiad chess team was chosen.

Sheriffa Ali (right) smiles as she opposes Frankie Farley during their game at the Andrew Arts Memorial Chess Tournament last Sunday at the National Resource Centre. Ali is a member of the 2016 Olympiad chess team which represents Guyana in Azerbaijan in September. She has been playing competitively for the past decade, and should do well at the Olympiad. On her right is her brother Saeed Ali. (Photo by Ryan Singh)

Chess is fascinating and complicated

“I am nothing special, of this I am sure. I am a common man with common thoughts and I’ve led a common life.

Director of Sport Christopher Jones and President of the Guyana Chess Federation Irshad Mohammed (centre) stand with some members of the 2016 Guyana Olympiad chess team. The team travels to Baku, Azerbaijan, for participation at the Olympiad in September. A signature qualifying tournament was not held to determine the members of Guyana’s Olympiad chess team.

Federation picks chess Olympiad team without holding qualifier

The Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) has decided upon a 2016 Guyana Olympiad chess team without hosting a qualification competition to determine the competence of its participants.

Prime Minister Forbes Burnham engaging member of the Guyana Chess Federation John Lewis over a game of chess at his Vlissengen Road residence in 1975. Burnham established the Guyana Chess Association in 1972.

Can we return to the glory days of chess?

There was a promising time in Guyana following the creation of the chess association in the early 1970s, when the nation benefited from men who demonstrated commitment to the game, integrity, and polish.

As Soviet grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi (right) completed his moves during the 1983 World Chess Championship semifinal in London, Garry Kasparov took notes, according to the New York Times. At 85, Korchnoi passed on in Switzerland on June 6.

Russian chess grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi dies

“In all of history you cannot find another player with his long-lived discipline, vigour and ferocity,” Garry Kasparov, writing in Viktor Korchnoi’s autobiography Chess is my Life.