Taffin played well throughout the championship, and his final victory did not surprise many. During the playoff between himself and Kriskal Persaud, a former junior and national champion, Taffin ended the match in the fourth game of the five-game series. All Kriskal could manage was a draw.
As a chess colleague of mine said, “Taffin was ruthless.”
Taffin’s victory is symbolic of the way forward, and also signifies that the game is developing among our youths. Minister Dr Frank Anthony has been driving chess to new heights in Guyana. He is insistent that the game must be played in the ten regions of the country. But he also noted that we do not have a “chess culture” in Guyana and expansion of the game would not be as fast as we would like it to be.
It was great to hear him say at the opening of the Neal and Massy/ Geddes Grant National Chess Championship at the Ocean Spray hotel, that he had just arrived from the North West region and he saw that chess was being played there. He was stimulated immediately to offer the support of the Ministry of Sport for expanding the game among the youths of the community. The Guyana Chess Federation is now preparing to host the annual schools’ chess championship which is being sponsored exclusively by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport. We anticipate increased participation among the schools in comparison to the numbers which turned out during the last championship.
Kosintseva v Ju
In the women’s section of the last chess Olympiad, the highlight was the clash of the two top-rated teams, Russia and China. Russia won the match 2/1/2 to 1/1/2.
Kosintseva, Nadezhda (2565) – Ju, Wenjun (2516)
39th Olympiad Khanty-Mansiysk 2010 (5), 25.9.2010
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 Nbd7 7.Qe2 e6 8.f4 Qc7 9.0-0-0 Be7 10.g4 b5 11.a3 Bb7 12.Bh4 h6 13.Bg2 Qc4 14.Qxc4 bxc4 15.h3 Rc8 16.Rhe1 Nc5 17.Re2 Rg8 18.f5 Nfd7 19.Bg3 Ne5 20.Nf3 Ncd7 21.Nd4 Nc5 22.Kb1 g6 23.Rf2 gxf5 24.exf5 Bxg2 25.Rxg2 Bf6 26.Bf4 Rh8 27.Re2 Ke7 28.fxe6 fxe6
29.Nf5+! exf5 30.Nd5+ Ke6 31.Nxf6 Rcd8 32.gxf5+?! Kxf5 33.Rf1 Ke6 34.Ng4 Ncd7 35.Rfe1 Kd5 36.Bxe5 dxe5 37.Nxe5 Nxe5 38.Rxe5+ Kc6 39.R1e4 c3 40.b4 Rd1+ 41.Ka2 Rhd8 42.Rc5+ Kb6 43.Re6+ R8d6 44.Rxd6+ Rxd6 45.Rxc3 a5 46.Kb3 Rg6 47.Re3 axb4 48.axb4 h5 49.c3 Rg5 50.Re6+ Kc7 51.Rh6 Rf5 52.h4 Re5 53.c4 Rf5 54.b5 Kb7 55.Kb4 Re5 56.Rh7+ Kc8 57.b6 Rf5 58.c5 Rf4+ 59.Kb5 Rxh4 60.Kc6 Black Resigns! 1-0.
