The Diamond Fire and General Insurance-sponsored National Women’s Chess Championship Qualifiers wrapped up last Sunday at the David Rose Special School with surprising results. Aniyah Couchman emerged as the winner in the seven round decisive FIDE-rated competition. The preceding two weekends – March 1st, 2nd, 8th, and 9th—females of all ages competed, vying for the top nine spots in the National Women’s Championships scheduled to begin on March 22nd, 2025.
Couchman edged past her opponents after gaining 5.5 points, her only loss coming from her match against WCM Sasha Shariff. Couchman’s last game with WCM Aditi Joshi, who also gained 5.5 points, ended in a draw. Joshi, the current Under-16 Girls Champion, finished second after the tiebreaks, with four wins and three draws.
Shariff took third place with 5 points after dominating the keenly contested tournament in the first four rounds while young Kataleya Sam, the current Under 12 Girls Champion, placed fourth with 5 points. Ciel Clement and Treskole Archibald finished with 4.5 points each placing them in the fifth and sixth positions. Italy Ton Chung, Angelina Yhap, and Lusianna Farlot all gained 4 points to qualify for the remaining three positions in the top nine.
These top nine females will square off over the board in a round robin competition with the 2024 National Women’s Champion title holder, WCM Jessica Callender, for a chance to win the 2025 National Women’s Chess Championship coveted title.
The annual competition served as a crucial event for the local female chess community, as this determined the top nine winners to compete in the championship. The nineteen female players who participated in the Swiss-format classical tournament, played a time control of 90 minutes with a 5-second increment added to the clock after each move. The tournament was supervised by FIDE Arbiter John Lee and assisted by National Arbiter Kim Shing Chong.
With this FIDE-rated tournament, some unrated players will have a chance to gain their ELO ratings once they would have won or drew a game with a rated player. With the increasing number of ELO rated players in Guyana, more and more players have been gradually gaining ratings. The Elo rating system measures the relative strength of a player in chess, compared to other players and it is used by the
International Chess Federation FIDE. Ratings can be checked on https://ratings.fide.com.
The GCF thanks its sponsor, Diamond Fire and General Insurance, for their unwavering support of the Women’s National Chess Championships over the years and the David Rose School for graciously providing the venue.
For more information on the Guyana Chess Federation, visit our website guyanachess.gy or email us on guyanachess@gmail.com. Follow us on Facebook or Instagram.
