Anaya Lall, 13, has emerged victorious on the girl’s side of the National Under-16 Rapid Chess Tournament staged at the Marian Academy on Monday.
This achievement cannot be understated with Lall being the only deaf chess player in the tournament, competing against players with no physical or sensory impairments.
This solidifies Lall’s dominance in the local youth chess arena, having attained the Under-14 National Girl’s title only a few months prior.
The Tuschen Deaf Academy Student won all of her matches, finishing with a perfect score of seven points. Lall amassed wins against reigning National Women’s Champion Pooja Lam, as well as former Under-16 title holder Italy Ton-Chung.
Her other victories came against former Under-14 champion Ciel Clement, Arabela Charles, Kataleya Sam, Kristin Xavier and Amara Branche.
Lall has already represented Guyana at FIDE Olympiad, the largest global stage for the sport at which the country competes, and she remains the youngest Guyanese to have ever done so.
This year’s Under-16 Girl’s Nationals saw 28 girls competing, the largest turnout of female players for a local chess tournament to date.
President of the Guyana Chess Federation Anand Raghunauth said this is testament to the hard work of the Women in Chess Committee.
In the Open division, Alexander Zhang finished on six points to win the tournament and take the title away from Kyle Couchman, who won the event last year.
Having come second place to Couchman just a few months prior in the Under-14 Rapid, Zhang came face to face with him again in a round four clash that resulted in a draw. This was just enough to inch victory at the conclusion of the tournament. Couchman ultimately ended on six points as well, but due to the direct encounter tiebreak rules, ranked second.
Overall, the tournament saw a total of 84 children competing.
The full list of winners in the tournament:
Girl’s Division
Anaya Lall – 1st Place
Pooja Lam – 2nd Place
Italy Ton-Chung – 3rd Place
Best U12 – Faraa Gaskin
Best U10 – Kataleya Sam
Best U8 – Hailey Gurchuran
Open Division
Alexander Zhang- 1st Place
Kyle Couchman- 2nd Place
Alex Benjamin – 3rd Place
Best U12 – Nicholas Zhang
Best U10 – Aquilani Swaminadha
Best U8 – Landon Mohabir
Best players by region
Region 3 – Isa Bremner
Region 6 – Joanna Sheppard
Region 10 – Stafford Washington