PERSAUD WINS BERBICE 20/20 RAPID CHESS TOURNAMENT

In the ancient county of Berbice, veteran Berbician chess player Kriskal Persaud  emerged as the winner of the Berbice 20/20 Rapid Chess Tournament held at  Little Rock Suites and Conference Hall in New Amsterdam last Sunday, August 24,  2025. 

Persaud played splendidly, with an unbeaten 6.5 points in the challenging seven round competition among the 32 participants, fifty percent of whom were  Berbicians. Persaud defeated his opponents Gavin Dev Mahadeo, Farrukh  Bahman, Jaden Todd, Rai Sharma, Kim Shing Chong, and Steve Leung. His game  in the fifth round with thirteen-year-old Nicholas Zhang from Georgetown ended  in a draw.  

Zhang finished in second place with an impressive 6 points, gaining two draws  with his matches against Persaud and Jaden Todd. Todd, another Berbician, took  third place with 5.5 points. The young, talented fifteen-year-old who attends the  Bishops’ High School lost his game against Persaud and drew his match with  Zhang in Round 6. 

Ciel Clement, who grew up in Berbice and resides in New Amsterdam, played all  her Rounds with calm composure, despite the nail-biting and quick-thinking  demands of rapid chess. The sixteen-year-old Queen’s College student handed a  crushing defeat to senior player Rai Sharma in Round Seven, who is known for  his decades of experience in speed play in the local chess circuit. With less than  two minutes remaining on her clock, Clement forced Sharma to concede the  match, even with his time advantage of approximately 15 minutes. In an earlier  Round, Clement almost lost on time, but her opponent, Darshanand Ramlall, ran  out of time first, giving Clement the victory with just one second out of 20  minutes left. 

Clement placed fourth with 5 points and took home the Best Female prize out of  the thirteen females who participated. Veteran Berbician John London and  Kishan Puran from Georgetown placed fifth and sixth, respectively, with 5 points  each.  

The twenty-minute time control rapid tournament was supervised by National  Arbiter and WCM Jessica Callender. Players from Georgetown provided much  competition and support to the Guyana Chess Federation-sponsored  tournament, with Directors CM Loris Nathoo and Shiv Nandalall in attendance. 

Fide Arbiter John Lee and Company Secretary Marcia Lee were also there to  provide support to the players and the competition.  

The federation would like to extend heartfelt gratitude to Mr and Mrs. Clement  for sponsoring the tournament venue.  

With the reintroduction of the game of chess in the county of Berbice, the GCF  hopes that this tournament will encourage more student participation. The GCF  distributed chess sets through the Gift of Chess program to New Amsterdam  Secondary and Vryman’s Erven Secondary schools and plans to provide sets to  more schools in the area soon to develop the local chess community.