Chess with Errol

The question of who is the greatest chess player of all time is constantly being asked and debated.

On Wednesday June 30, 2021, Abhimanyu Mishra, a 12-year-old from Englishtown, New Jersey, USA, became the youngest grandmaster in the history of chess, breaking the 19-year record of Russian grandmaster Sergey Karjakin, who had achieved the feat in 2002 at the age of 12 years and 7 months.

Forty students participated in the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) qualifying championship tournament a week ago despite preparations for the National Grade Six Assessment, Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate examinations and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination.

Andrew Walker, a former Queen’s College student and a veteran chess player now residing in the New York tri-state area, visited Guyana last week after 30 years.

Last month, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) published the qualification criteria that will be used for entry into the 2022 Candidates Tournament.

World Champion Magnus Carlsen defeated American grandmaster Wesley So in an Arma-geddon match to win the FTX Crypto Cup, the sixth tournament of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour recently.

Over the last weekend, the Guyana Chess Federation engineered a combined junior and senior Independence over-the-board tournament and a virtual girls’ competition.

The Guyana Chess Federation’s (GCF) annual independence six-round classical tournament continues today from 10 am at the National Stadium, Providence.

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, “a prodigy is a child who, by about age 10, performs at the level of a highly trained adult in a particular sphere of activity or knowledge.

Now that the irregular 2020-21 Candidates Tournament has ended, all focus is on the World Championship Match which is more than six months away and is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, November 24.

Russian Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi won the acclaimed World Champion-ship Candidates Chess Tournament in Yekaterinburg, Russia, last week with a round to spare and claimed the right to challenge world champion Magnus Carlsen for his title.

As the World Champion-ship Candidates Tourna-ment continued, Russia’s number one chess player Ian Nepomniachtchi defeated his countryman Kirill Alekseenko in 31 moves in a Catalan setup with a fianchettoed king’s bishop in Round 10, which was played on Wednesday last.

The Candidates Tournament to select the most suitable chess player to oppose world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway resumes tomorrow.

Last month, March, represented 110 years since the suave Cuban chess player Jose Raul Capablanca won the great San Sebastian Chess Tournament.

The second half of the World Chess Federation’s (FIDE) 2020/2021 Candidates Tournament begins on April 19 with seven rounds to go.

Anish Kumar Giri, 26, a Dutch chess grandmaster, was declared the winner of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational Rapid/Blitz Online Tournament last Sunday and pocketed US$60,000 for his efforts.

The idea that chess should only be played by a select minority is to be abhorred.

Internationally, chess is progressing; seemingly it is overcoming the hindrances that resulted from COVID-19.

Once elections are held the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) may wish to begin addressing chess for the Essequibo coast in a regulated format.

Before the end of the first quarter of 2021, a strenuous effort should be made for the election of office bearers of the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) to be held.