Trinidadian FM Joshua Johnson suffered his first defeat by checkmate to Surinamese FM Jason Yeung in Round Seven on Saturday, July 5, 2025, in the CARICOM Classic Team Chess Tournament underway at the Pegasus Hotel. In a marathon fighting match that lasted four hours, Yeung closed in on Johnson’s monarch with his Rook, while a Knight and passed pawn prevented the escape of the hapless King.
Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname, both CARICOM nations, ended their round with an even score of two wins and two draws apiece. Trinidadian FM Kevin Cupid defeated his youthful Surinamese opponent Ethan Tjin Kon Kiem to balance the Round Seven fortunes of the Trinidadian team. Female Trinidadian players WFM Ysvett Hermoso Rodriguez and WCM Zara La Fleur drew with their Surinamese counterparts WCM Victoria Kaslan and WCM Alexandra Kaslan.
OTHER ROUND SEVEN HIGHLIGHTS
Guyana Team B was paired with Dominica in Round Seven last Saturday. CM Sachin Pitamber’s match ended in a loss for his Dominican counterpart, CM Nigel Francis. The two opponents reached an endgame with Pitamber’s Knight and six pawns versus the Dominican’s Bishop and four pawns. Pitamber’s extra pawns, marching to the promotion and supported by his Knight and active King in the fight, successfully staged a breakthrough to overwhelm Francis with the material edge.
Guyana’s Sandiford, in an endgame with four menacing pawns, defeated Edger Berridge in 32 moves. The pawns, somewhat restricted at the beginning of the match, became Sandiford’s formidable endgame resource as foot soldiers to dominate his opponent. In the same round, Guyanese female player Aniyah Couchman was on the verge of skillfully delivering a smothered checkmate using her Queen and Knight when her Dominican counterpart Liudmila Domennova resigned on the 28th move. WCM Sasha Shariff drew her match with Dominican Ayani Casimir.
ROUND SIX HIGHLIGHTS
In Round Six, Guyanese Team B players CM Sachin Pitamber, Keron Sandiford, Aniyah Couchman, and WCM Sasha Shariff lost to Jamaicans FM Joshua Christie, FM Shreyas Smith, Amy Stephenson, and Kaia Gayle. CM Pitamber’s confrontation with FM Joshua Christie concluded in the endgame as Christie began marching his unchallenged extra two pawns to promotion for a convincing win. Pitamber resigned on move 50.
Sandiford faced FM Shreyas Smith where he had to contend with a battle on two fronts; Smith’s passed pawn occupied the sixth square on the verge of promotion, coupled with an immobile Bishop about to be captured. In a losing position, Sandiford gave up the fight on move 34.
On the distaff side, Aniyah Couchman, in a severely restricted position, lost to her Jamaican counterpart Amy Stephenson. Stephenson aimed her unchallenged Queen and Rook to pursue Couchman’s King, which was only defended by a weaker Rook and Bishop. Couchman conceded the loss soon after to avoid checkmate.
Shariff was paired with Kaia Gayle, who invaded Shariff’s vulnerable King’s haven with a Rook on move 37, pinning Shariff’s Queen to the King. Faced with the loss of a powerful Queen, the Guyanese player resigned on the next move.
Guyana’s Team A, comprising CM Taffin Khan, Kyle Couchman, WCM Aditi Joshi, and Ciel Clement, had a strong performance against Dominica on Friday, securing three wins and a draw.
Khan, Couchman, and Joshi captured wins from Francis, Berridge, and Domennova, respectively. Clement drew her encounter with her counterpart Casimir.
After seven rounds of the nine-round event, the team points standings are Trinidad & Tobago 13 (24 game points), Jamaica 12 (24.5 game points), Suriname 11 (20.5 game points), Barbados 11 (19 game points), Guyana 10 (18.5 game points), Cayman Islands 4 (10.5 game points), St. Lucia 6 (11.5 game points) and Dominica 0 (1.5 game points).
The Under-16 individual category sees a tight race after seven of nine rounds, with Barbadians Mileke Sinckler and Noah Clarke, and Guyanese Alexander Zhang all tied
for the lead at 5.5 points. Just half a point behind are Suriname’s Thie-Yen Fung and Barbados’s Aaron Jaikarran, both with 5 points.
Results for Rounds Eight and Nine will be finalized as the tournament concludes. The event features forty players competing in the team categories and forty-eight vying for the individual Under-16 title.
The FIDE-rated tournaments are being monitored by FIDE Arbiters, IA Kelvin Daniel from Barbados, Guyanese John Lee, Reyna Frijde from Suriname, and Jessica Callender from Guyana. National Arbiters, Kim Shing Chong and Treskole Archibald are also assisting.
