Loris Nathoo and Candidate Master (CM) Taffin Khan have separated themselves from the pack after three rounds of the Guyana Chess Federation’s GAICO Grand Prix chess tournament last weekend.
The opening rounds were held at the National Resource Centre, Woolford Avenue where both players won all of their matches in the Swiss-system seven-round competition.
All eyes will be on the pair as they meet in a fourth-round clash scheduled for today at the same venue from 17.00 hours.
Trailing the duo are CM Wendell Meusa and Glenford Corlette with 2.5 points each after playing to a draw in their third round encounter.
Corlette forced Meusa into a three move repetition hence the draw while Farley held on for four hours in his clash against Nathoo before Nathoo triumphed.
Following closely are former GFC president Errol Tiwari and current president Frankie Farley respectively along with Shiv Nandalall, Samairah Gobin, Justino DaSilva, Davion Mars, Joshua Gopaul, Kenrick Brathwaite, Saeed Ali, Ethan Lee, Maliah Rajkumar and Adrian Roopnarine who are all on two points.
Gobin produced the lone upset so far when she defeated Chelsea Juma.
Waveney Johnson is alone on 1.5 points, holding a slim lead over Gobin, Joshua Khan, Rai Sharma, Jacob Nauth, Jaden Taylor, Gillysa Hamilton and Chino Chung, all of whom are on one point.
Juma and Robert Neto are on 0.5 points as Jacob McDonald, Mahir Rajkumar and Anansie Fredericks are yet to get on the board. For today’s fourth round Tiwari will play Corlette; Meusa will play Gobin; Farley will oppose Roopnarine; Lee will play Nandalall; DaSilva will oppose Ali; Mars will play Brathwaite and Johnson will square off with Gopaul.
