Mobile Money Guyana, known widely as MMG, has teamed up with the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) to host the National U-14 Chess Championships.
This year’s one-day event is set for Saturday at the Queen’s College Auditorium from 09.00 hours with players competing in a seven-round tournament under a time control of 20 minutes per player and a five-second added to the clock after each move in the Open and Girls tournaments.
Thirteen-year-old Kyle Couchman, who is currently the U-14 and Ur-16 champion, will defend his title but the likes of up and coming players in Alexander and Nicholas Zhang, Mahir Rajkumar, Arysh Raghunauth, Jeremy Cole, Jacob McDonald, Arush Ramnarine, Micaiah Enoe, Vivek Persaud, Mayas Khan, the Mohabir brothers, Julian and Landon, and nine-year-old Aquilani Swaminadha who is the current U-12 Open champion, will all challenge him for the title.
The girls tournament is set to be fiercely contested as well with strong young players such as 2022 girls U-12 champion, Ciel Clement and Kataleya Sam, who won the under-12 girls chess championship recently set to compete.
Atalya John, Amelia Griffith, Chelsea Harrison and Skyler Gurchuran are among those competing on Saturday.
However, they will come up against 13-year-old Anaya Lall, who was the youngest player on the women’s team at the 2022 Biennial Chess Olympiad in Chennai, India. The Olympiad is notably the highest-level tournament Guyanese chess players compete in and includes a rigorous selection process where players show their prowess against the best players across the country.
Lall is also the first and only player, male or female, to represent Guyana online at the FIDE World Championship for People with Disabilities in 2021.
This weekend’s U-14 tournament is open to all chess players under the age of 14 at the beginning of the year. Registration is done only on guyanachess.org and the deadline is at 17:00hrs on February 24.
Registration is free for members of the Guyana Chess Federation. Children who are not registered with the Federation is required to pay a fee of $2000 via MMG.
The top three finishers for each tournament will be awarded prizes as well as the top three under-10 and under-8 players.
The GCF expressed immense gratitude to MMG for sponsoring the event. MMG had previously supported chess in Guyana and the GCF looks forward to a continued partnership in the future.
