Allicock, Couchman and Joshi dominate year-end chess tournaments

FIDE Master (FM) Rawle Allicock won the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) sponsored End-of-Year Rapid, while Kyle Couchman copped first place in the Blitz segment of the chess competitions held last weekend at the School of the Nations in Georgetown.

Women Candidate Master (WCM) Aditi Joshi clinched the Best Female Prize in both competitions.

FM Allicock played unbeaten in the Rapid competition, delivering a commanding performance to finish with 6.5 points.

His near-perfect run was only tempered by a draw against second-place finisher Kyle Couchman (5.5 points) in Round Five. Keron Sandiford secured third place with five points.

Couchman, after performing flawlessly in the first six rounds, lost to Candidate Master (CM) Sachin Pitamber in the last round. Pitamber, having opted to play in the Open section, garnered the fourth place spot in the Open Category with five points.

Joshi, also playing in the Open section ended the competition with five points.

The junior ranks displayed equally fierce competition in the Under-20 category, where Ricardo Narine, who finished with five points, earned the best player prize ahead of Rafael Park and Matthew Singh, who both finished with five points each to take second and third place, respectively.

Lusianna Farlot took home the Best Female prize for the Under-20 category after gaining the top score of five points for the junior females.

Excellent performances also came from Kim Shing Chong, who also gained five points, and Alexander Zhang and Aiden Tinnie, who both ended with 4.5 points.

The End-of-Year Rapid Tournament, featuring a seven-round Swiss format with a time control of 15 minutes plus five-second increments, drew the nation’s elite talent for a showdown over the boards.

The Year-End Blitz tournament held with a five-minute plus three-second increment time control, was dominated by Couchman. He claimed first place with an unbeaten 8.5 points across nine rounds.

Couchman’s near perfect run was only slightly slowed by a final-round draw against Nicholas Zhang, but his standout performance came in Round Five, where he secured a crucial victory over the FM Allicock.

Allicock took second place with eight points, while Matthew Singh earned third with 6.5 points, showing remarkable tenacity by losing only to the top two finishers.

WCM Joshi once again secured the Best Female prize, delivering a consistent performance to finish with five points. Among the other standout performers were Keron Sandiford, who earned six points, followed closely by Joshua Gopaul with 5.5.

Alexander and Nicholas Zhang both concluded their runs on five points, while Kishun Puran (4.5) and Jessica Callendar (4.0) delivered solid performances to round out the top 10.

Cash prizes totalling G$159,000 were handed out to the top three winners and best female in the Open and Under-20 categories in the Rapid Tournament, while the top three placements and best female received for the Blitz Competition.

“The GCF extends its sincere gratitude to the School of the Nations for its continued support as venue host and commends FM Anthony Drayton for his professional oversight of the games. For those interested in joining the local chess community, further details on clubs and membership are available at guyanachess.gy,” the Chess Federation highlighted in a press release.