Guyana’s athletic participation in the 2024 Inter-Guiana Games demonstrated outstanding efforts in sportsmanship and teamwork.
Seven sports disciplines from Guyana participated in the event against Suriname and French Guiana. The Junior National Chess team stood out with their skill and strategy to secure Silver in second place in the three-day tournament held in French Guiana from October 24th to October 26th, 2024 with Alexander Zhang playing unbeaten in the four rounds.
Guyana was represented by CM Sachin Pitamber, Alexander Zhang, and Omar Shariff for the male team, and WCM Aditi Joshi, Ciel Clement, Italy Ton-Chung and Kaija Clement made up the female team. The male team entered the competition with one member short due to Kyle Couchman’s absence.
Day one of the tournament started with three of the six rounds of the Double Round Robin format, with 30 minutes per player plus 30 seconds increment after each move.
The Guyana male team played against Suriname in round one but lost the round with 1.5 points against the Suriname total of 2.5. After a round two bye, the Guyanese team faced a setback in round three against French Guiana, where the only point was secured by Zhang. The boys held their own in round 4, with even scores against Suriname, thanks to wins from Zhang and Pitamber. After a second bye in round 5, Guyana won round 6 against French Guiana scoring 2.5 to 1.5 points with wins from Zhang and Pitamber and a draw from Shariff.
Zhang emerged as the top scorer with 4 out of 4 points for Guyana.
The Guyana female team was overwhelmed by Suriname in rounds one and four. However, in round three, the girls rallied to secure the round against French Guiana 3:1 with victories from Joshi and the Clement siblings. The female team also demolished the French Guiana team in round six with 4:0 points.
Both male and female teams finished second, receiving the silver trophies, and each player was awarded a silver medal.
The team received extensive coaching and support from coach and supervisor Roberto Nero, who ensured the team did their best to meet the challenges cast by their opponents in each round.
The Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) is extremely proud of all the players who participated in the tournament. The GCF would like to thank the team officials Mrs. Clement and Mrs. Joshi for supporting the team members during the eight days of tournament and travel and coach Roberto Neto whose support was invaluable to the team.
The federation is grateful to the Honorable Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Mr. Charles Ramson, and the Director of Sports, Mr. Steve Ninvalle, and his team for organizing and providing a safe and successful trip for the athletes.
The GCF has reviewed its selection and code of conduct policy by way of a special board meeting and will be instituting a menu of measures to not have teams adversely affected in future tournaments.
