Wins for Ali, Neto and Mars as national junior chess qualification tournament gets underway

The Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) Trophy Stall-sponsored national junior chess qualification tournament for the 2014 Closed national junior chess championships got underway yesterday at the ECI Sports Club, Friendship East Bank Demerara with wins for Roberto Neto, Daveon Mars and Saeed Ali.

Neto got the better of Sheriffa Ali in a rook and pawn endgame, Mars grounded out a win over Jessica Clementson and Saeed Ali defeated Linden’s Calvin Rahaman. Owen Mickle drew the bye.

Only one round was played yesterday but according to president of the GCF Irshad Mohamed, two round will be contested today with the first getting underway at 10am and the second round at 2pm.

The Swiss System tournament will be played over seven rounds and the top seven players at the end of the tournament will move on challenge defending champion Haifeng Su for his title.

Since there are only seven players participating in this qualification tournament all the players will contest the Closed national championships later this year.