National Sports Commission backs Junior Chess team for Olympiad in Colombia

Thanks to the support of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Guyana’s top junior chess players are set to represent the nation at the prestigious FIDE World Youth U16 Chess Olympiad in Barranquilla, Colombia.

The four-player squad, accompanied by coach and FIDE Master Anthony Drayton, will compete against teams worldwide in the week-long tournament, which runs from August 16 to 23.

The team is spearheaded by Kyle Couchman, the newly crowned 2025 National Junior Chess Champion, who will play on Board One.

With a FIDE rating of 1947, he is the third-highest-rated active player in Guyana.

Joining him are three other accomplished young talents:

• Candidate Master (CM) Sachin Pitamber, the youngest CM in the country and the current U16 Open Chess Champion, will play on Board Two. Pitamber and Woman Candidate Master (WCM) Aditi Joshi earned their titles at the 2024 Chess Olympiad in Hungary.

• Alexander Zhang, who was Guyana’s top player at the CARICOM U16 Junior Tournament, will hold down Board Three.

• Woman Candidate Master (WCM) Aditi Joshi, the reigning U16 Girls and Women’s Chess Champion, will play on Board Four.

With 90 teams and over 350 players registered, the competition will be fierce. The Guyanese team is currently the highest-ranked CARICOM nation in the tournament.

The tournament will feature nine rounds using the Swiss System with a time control of 45 minutes plus 10-second increments.

The Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) is confident that the event will be an invaluable experience for the players’ individual growth and skill development. The federation has thanked the NSC for sponsoring the team’s airfare.