Senior chess players Loris Nathoo (1703) and Candidate Master (CM) Taffin Khan (2005) will head into a playoff soon to vie for the 2023 National Open Championship title. The playoff result will finally determine the new champion.
Both players ended their encounters with nine opponents with the highest scores of 7.5 points each in the just concluded National Open tournament.
The well-experienced players will face each other in an exciting, tense struggle in a three-game match of Speed Chess. A date and venue for the confrontation to finally take place will be announced shortly.
The total playing time of the three games is a maximum of one hour and is expected to be a brutal struggle between the two alert minds. Each contender will be allotted 15, 10 and five minutes on the clock from the first to the third games, respectively, under the watchful eyes of Tournament Arbiter John Lee.
Yet still, if the scores are even after three games, both contenders will move to the sudden death stage of the play off in blitz chess with five minutes each on the clock.
The clock will countdown both opponents’ time as they grapple to score wins over each other. During the fast-paced playoff, Nathoo and Khan will be compelled to employ strategy and tactics with caution and speed to outplay each other. Nathoo has never participated in a playoff in a National Chess Championship.
However, Khan participated in a similar playoff in the 2010 Championship, where he confronted former National Champion, Berbician Kriskal Persaud and won that contest over a decade ago. Local chess history will repeat itself with another Championship playoff.
Again, as in the previous one, this will end with only one Senior National Chess Champion. The players offered their expectations in the upcoming ‘blitzkrieg’ match. Nathoo remarked that he is looking forward with eager anticipation to once again battle over the chess board with the enigmatic strategist ‘The Compressor’ CM Taffin Khan.
“I will be entering the contest as the underdog, and that is what brings out the best in me. Win or lose, it will be a contest that I relish,” Nathoo concluded.
“I hope to win,” was Khan’s terse response when asked.
The true result will crystallize soon. Meanwhile, the five junior players who participated fought valiantly to improve their performance and made dents in the scores of some seniors.
They were the boldest of the young players who mustered the mental fortitude to compete against the top seniors in the competition.
The overall points standings at the end of the nine-round GAICO sponsored Championship are Khan and Nathoo with 7.5 apiece, Junior Champion Keron Sandiford and Jaden Taylor with five points each, Senior Justino Da Silva just under the two top juniors with 4.5 points, followed by Saeed Ali and Junior Sachin Pitamber together with four.
Senior Gilbert Williams and Junior Ethan Lee are on a joint score of 3.5, while Junior Rolex Alexander remained with .5 at the end of the competition.
The GCF wishes to thank GAICO for their sponsorship of the 2023 National Chess Championship. GAICO has been a long-term sponsor of chess tournaments over the years.
Thanks are also extended to the National Sports Commission for access to the Resource Centre for the Championship games.
