Coronavirus: Guyana Chess Federation postpones CARIFTA Junior Tournament

The Guyana Chess Federation has made a decision to postpone the upcoming CARIFTA Junior Chess tournament, which was fixed for April 2020.

In a statement on Thursday, the Federation said it had no choice but to postpone the competition, owing to the coronavirus threat in Guyana.

“We will be monitoring the progress of the pandemic with the hope of soon seeing a downward trend in the infection curve,” the Federation said.

The tournament, hosted by the Guyana Chess Federation in association with the Confederation of Chess for the Americas (www.fideamericas.com), was scheduled to take place from April 10-13 at the Ramada Hotel. A total of about 125 players from 10 Caribbean nations were set to compete.

“The organising committee has been in contact with the principle stakeholders who have expressed their full support for the Guyana Chess Federation’s decision and have agreed to extend the franchise to a later date,” the statement continued.

“Guyana plans to field 100 players from six years to 19 years old, all of which have been in training or playing development tournaments for the past few months. The majority of these players are the products of the Guyana Chess Federation’s Chess in Schools programme. Formal training sessions over the past weeks have been cancelled, but the National Coaches have organised online training and online tournaments to keep their skills sharp.”

The Federation further wishes to assure all sponsors, players and their parents or care-givers that the ninth CARIFTA Junior Chess Championships will be held in Guyana and will be conducted with the health and safety of all players, delegates and officials as our primary priority.

“The organising committee plans to use this time to review all arrangements, hopefully, attract new sponsors and to provide extended training for our junior players,” the Federation concluded.