Cox is national junior chess champion

Cecil Cox won the vacant national junior title as the Guyana Chess Federation’s (GCF) Closed double round robin tournament ended on Saturday at the Kei-Shar’s Sports Club.

In the final two rounds of the 14 round competition Cox defeated Kana Khan and drew with Raan Motielall to complete the tournament on 11 and one half points out of a possible 14.

His only defeat was to Crystal Khan, the lone female, who eventually stormed back to take the second spot.

She ended on 10 points after defeating Saeed Ali in the penultimate round.

Sham Khan was third ending on nine and one half points, while Ali, who led up until the seventh round, placed fourth with nine points.

Wendell Meusa
Wendell Meusa

Rashad Hussain was fifth with five points while Motiellall and Kana Khan ended on four and one half points.

The other competitor Stanley Ming Jr., withdrew after round four.

In the senior competition which was played at the Ocean Spray on Saturday, Wendell Meusa, who had already secured the title, ended unbeaten with 13 and one half points out of a possible 14.

Ronuel Greenidge pipped former national junior champion Taffin Khan for second position ending on nine and one half points.

Khan was third with nine points while Persaud, the defending champion, finished fourth with seven points.

Omar Shariff, the only player to hold Meusa to a draw, was fifth with six points while Learie Webster, Brian Thompson and Chino Chung took the remaining places with five, four and two points respectively.

In Saturday’s results: Greenidege and Thompson played to draw, Meusa defeated Chung, Khan defeated Webster and Shariff defeated Kriskal Persaud in the penultimate round.

In the final round, Greenidge beat Shariff, Persaud beat Khan, Webster beat Chung and Meusa defeated Thompson.

The presentation will take place on Friday at a venue to be named.