Vryman’s Erven Secondary School captured the first prize in the team category of the 2019 Berbice Inter-Schools Chess Championship recently.
New Amsterdam Multilateral Secondary School, a favourite to grasp the Championship, endorsed its credibility by taking the first to third prizes in the competitive individual categories.
Orealla Primary Top and Siparuta Primary claimed the second and third team category spaces. Both schools have been inspired to study and excel at chess by Nellisha Johnson, a former student of Orealla Primary, who represented Guyana at the 2018 Chess Olympiad in Georgia.
Forty-six students from 11 schools participated in the Championship, which employed the traditional Swiss-system formula. To put it simply, such a format determines that winners play winners and losers play losers.
The Championship was sponsored by the Department of Education, Region Six, and was coordinated by President of the Berbice Chess Association Krishnanand Raghunandan, Vice-President Steve Leung and Treasurer Dane Grimmond.
Meanwhile, the junior chess team that competed in the Caribbean Chess Championship in Curacao, placed fifth among more experienced and accomplished contenders boasting FIDE rating points. Jaden Taylor, Jarrell Troyer and Arysh Ragunauth broke even in the Championship scoring 3½ points from 7 games (a win = 1point; a loss = 0 point, and a draw = ½ point. Most of the Guyana chess representatives were competing in their first international meeting.
