The senior National Qualifier for entry into the 2020 National Chess Championship started yesterday at the National Stadium, Providence. In the nine-round tournament, two rounds have already been completed and two will be played today.
Only nine players from the tournament will go forward to play for the title of national chess champion of Guyana. Wendell Meusa did not participate in the 2019 National Chess Championship. Therefore, he is required to play the 2020 National Qualifier so that he can proceed to the National Championship. Only the current national champion is exempt from the Qualifier.
We are not expecting new names to be included in the qualifying group. The names would be familiar to us. Certainly, some known names would not appear. But that is what competition is all about. We have to get the best.
Finally, here is an interesting story. According to chess history, Cuba’s Jose Raul Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine of Russia were the two most prolific players of the 1920s. They played for the world chess championship in 1927 and Alekhine won.
The two later tried to outdo each other at every turn. Capablanca engaged 200 players simultaneously (50 tables, each with a team of four players) in New York in 1931. Such a feat had never occurred previously. One year later, in 1932 in Paris, Alekhine took on 300 players simultaneously. He then repeated the feat in New York, perhaps to assure himself that he was better than his rival.
