Grandmaster Short engages Guyanese chess players

…President Ali to support GCF’s endeavours

State House was a buzz of activity on Tuesday afternoon following a visit from England Chess Grandmaster Nigel Short.

Short, in a series of exhibition matches, faced 20 Guyanese chess players simultaneously at the State House benab, prior to which the Grandmaster, along with Executives of the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF), met with President Dr. Irfaan Ali.

Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Motley, visiting State House on other matters, was also present at the engagement.

Short, the FIDE director for chess development, opposed Guyanese chess players from as young as nine years old to as old as 30 years old.

The former World #3-ranked player started his campaign just after 5pm, and was completely engaged for the first 2 hours of the exhibition as the Guyana side fought valiantly to scratch out an advantage over the Grandmaster.

He played against former Open National Champion CM Taffin Khan, FM Anthony Drayton, Davion Mars, Roberto Neto, Ethan Lee, WCM Sheriffa Alli, Jessica Callender, Nellisha Johnson, 2022 National Women’s Champion Pooja Lam, 2022 Junior Champion Ricardo Narine, 2023 Under-14 Open Champion Kyle Couchman, 2023 U14 Girl’s Champion Anaya Lall, 2023 National U-12 Champion Aquilani Swaminadha; Keron Sandiford, Sasha Shariff, Micaiah Enoe, Ronan Lee, Mayas Khan and siblings Alexander and Nicholas Zhang.

At about 8pm, at the beginning of hour 3, the pins sadly began to fall, and it was all over by 9pm with the final capitulation of CM Taffin Khan.

The best game in the exhibition was said to be against Anthony Drayton.

Tensions were high as player after player battled for

In the not-too-distant future, the mining town of Linden would have its first synthetic track, as the laying and marking of the material nears competition.

This revelation was made by subject Minister Charles Ramson jr. in a social media post on Wednesday morning.

According to that post, the rubber material has already been laid, and the lanes are now being marked. The laying of the track is being done by Russian Company BSW Regupol in a project which commenced approximately 4 weeks ago.

Outside of the track itself, the contract for the facility at Linden was awarded to Builders Hardware and General Supplies to the tune of $179M back in October 2018.

Headley-Weekes Tri-Series 2023…

Da Silva slams unbeaten century, Layne bags five-for

Ronan Lee, who kept the Grandmaster engaged for the entirety of the event, outlasting almost all of their more experienced peers.

Candidate Master Taffin Khan, notably one of Guyana’s most decorated chess players, held on the longest. Only after a long and suspenseful three hours did he finally concede and let the final king fall, leaving former world championship finalist Short with a clean sweep.

Judging from what he witnessed on Tuesday, Grandmaster Short praised the Federation for progress made so far in advancing chess, noting that he sees potential for Guyanese players to eventually be on par with players from global powerhouses for the sport, such as Russia. He added that he also hopes to see Guyana become a regional powerhouse for the sport.

President Irfaan Ali donates $1M for chess development

Meanwhile, during the Federation’s engagement with President Ali, it was confirmed that there would be a donation of one million dollars to the Guyana Chess Federation. This was said to be in the interest of encouraging and supporting the GCF in taking chess to all corners of the country.

The simultaneous exhibition was sponsored by Arrowten, Marics, Mobile Lubricants, Topco, Diamond Water and Digicom. As such, the GCF wishes to express gratitude to its sponsors for enabling the Federation to host the event at State House. Foremost of those wellwishers was His Excellency Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, who granted the use of State House for the activity.

West Indies Test wicketkeeper -batter a chance to edge victory over one of the best chess players in the world. Outstanding games from 9-year-old Aquilani Swaminadha, 12-year-old Anaya Lall and 16-year-old

Joshua Da Silva has registered his highest first-class score of 136 as Team Headley recovered to post 259.

And West Indies youth fast-bowler Johann Layne has claimed 5-39 in 10 overs on day one of this match between Team Headley and the West Indies Academy in Antigua.

Team Headley won the toss and batted first. Layne, playing in his maiden first-class match, reduced Team Headley to 43-4.

Keagan Simmons was caught and bowled by Jordan for a duck, while Teddy Bishop was bowled by Jordan for a golden duck.

In addition to Tuesday afternoon’s activity, Short was expected to interact with other chess players and members of the public at the Amazonia Mall at Providence, East Bank Demerara on Wednesday afternoon.

Opener Shayne Moseley retired hurt on nine. Captain Da Silva and Akeem Jordan revived the innings with his unbeaten 136 from 201 balls. He was supported by Test selectee the seamer Akeem Jordan, who scored 54, his highest first-class score.

In addition to Layne's 5-39, left-arm spinner Joshua Bishop had 2-89 and Guyanese Ashmead Nedd had 1-32 in 18.4 overs. In reply, West Indies Academy lost two early wickets.

Guyanese Kevlon Anderson is unbeaten on 12, while Kirk McKenzie had 31 at stumps, with West Indies Academy on 49-2 in 19 overs, trailing by 210 runs at the Coolidge Cricket Ground in Antigua. Hours before the match, it was made evident that Guyanese Tevin Imlach was named as replacement for Rivaldo Clarke in the West Indies Academy squad for the Headley-Weekes Tri-Series four-day first-class competition. Imlach is a right-handed wicketkeeper-batter who has so far played 12 first-class matches. He made his maiden first-class century of 136 not out against Jamaica Scorpions last month when he was part of the Guyana Harpy Eagles team which won the West Indies Championship.

Scoreboard

Team Headley 1st Innings

Kieran Powell c Imlach b Layne 0

Sheyne Moseley retired not out 9

Darren Bravo c Bishop b Layne 5

Kavem Hodge c Nedd b Layne 10

Tevyn Walcott lbw b Layne 15

Joshua Da Silva not out 136

Justin Greaves b Bishop 3

Akeem Jordan c McKenzie b Layne 54

Anderson Phillip Pitman b McKenzie 16

Chaim Holder c

Wickham b Bishop 10

Marquino Mindley c

Simmons b Nedd 0

Total (9 wickets, 70.4) (1 extras)

FOW: 1/1 (0.3) Kieran Powell

25/2 (6.3) Darren Bravo 34/3

(8.1) Kavem Hodge 43/4 (10.4)

Tevyn Walcott59/5 (18.1) Justin Greaves 164/6 (39.5) Akeem

Upon completion of the Linden Track at Bayrock, it is expected that attention would be turned to the track

Jordan 202/7 (51.6) Anderson

Phillip 224/8 (61.1) Chaim Holder

259/9 (70.4) Marquino Mindley

Bowling

Johann Layne (10-1-39-5)

Kelvin Pitman (8-0-50-0)

Nyeem Young (9-1-32-0)

Joshua Bishop (19-1-89-2)

Teddy Bishop (3-0-9-0)

Ashmead Nedd (18.4-6-32-1)

Kirk McKenzie (3-0-8-1)

West Indies Academy Batting

Keagan Simmons c & b Jordan 0

Kirk McKenzie not out 31

Teddy Bishop b Jordan 0

Kevlon Anderson not out 12

Total (2 wickets, 19.0) (6 extras) 49

FOW 0/1 (0.5) Keagan Simmons

0/2 (0.6) Teddy Bishop

Bowling

Akeem Jordan (6-2-16-2)

Marquino Mindley (3-2-5-0)

Anderson Phillip (4-1-7-0)

Justin Greaves (4-2-3-0)

Chaim Holder (2-0-12-0)