The Guyana Chess Federation is excited to field a team of eleven players for the Youth CAC games in Trinidad and Tobago.
Eleven Guyanese chess players landed in Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday, August 20 to vie for victory in the XIV CAC Youth Chess Festival.
The Championship will be played from August 21st to 26th at the Cascadia Hotel
in Port of Spain. The rhythm of play will be 90 minutes plus an increment of 30
seconds per move from move one.Queen’s College’s Matthew Singh and former Marian Academy student Ronan
Lee is competing in the U18 absolute category. Queen’s College’s Aniyah
Couchman will play the U18 female category.
Alexander Zhang of Queen’s College and St. Stanislaus College student Italy Ton
Chung competes in the U16 absolute and female categories, respectively.
Queen’s College’s Kyle Couchman (brother of Aniyah Couchman) and St. Joseph
High School’s Dominic Sam is in the U14 absolute category. Siblings Ciel of
Queen’s College and Kaija Clement of St. Roses High School are in the U14
female category.Alexander’s brother Nicholas Zhang (Queen’s College) will play the U12 absolute.
Kateleya Sam from Mae’s Primary is the youngest on the team in the U10 female
category.
The head of the Delegation accompanying the team is Marcia Lee, who also serves as
GCF Secretary and Head of the Women in Chess Committee.
Roberto Neto also accompanies the team to coach the players throughout the
tournament. He, alongside FM Anthony Drayton, also helped prep the team before their departure.
Neto is an experienced national player who has represented Guyana globally.
This event is FIDE rated and offers these young players not only the opportunity
to put their skills to the test against the best and brightest players under the age
of 18 across the region, but also the chance for those skills to be rewarded with
titles and norms. Gold, Silver, and Bronze trophies will be awarded to players taking the top three
spots in each category. Based on total points, the top three CAC countries will
also receive trophies. Countries will earn points based on top-five finishes in each
category, where a 5th place finish grants one point and 1st place rewards five
points.
As is typical for these events, the winners will be decided by the points obtained
by each player. The champions will be decided by who obtains the most points,
and in the case of ties, winners will be decided by implementing several tie-break systems.
The nine-round Swiss system tournament features over 200 players from 15
countries across the Central American and Caribbean regions.
President of the Trinidad and Tobago Chess Federation Sonja Johnson, confirmed
this, while stating that St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia, and Haiti are
fielding contingents for the first time alongside long-time competitors such as
Honduras, Guatemala, Panama, Costa Rica, Cuba, Jamaica, Barbados and
Suriname.
