More than 30 Guyanese chess players, ranging in age from seven to 35, will represent the country this weekend at the CARIFTA Hybrid Chess Championship 2026, as Guyana looks to make a strong showing across multiple age-group and senior categories.
The nine-round Swiss-format tournament, hosted by the Confederation of Chess for the Americas (CCA) and the Hybrid Circuit of the Americas, will be played in a hybrid format via the Tornelo platform on July 11 and 12 at the Olympic House in Liliendaal. Competition runs from 10:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. each day under the FIDE Online Chess Regulations.
The championship features eight independent tournaments: Open, Women, Under-18, Under-16, Under-14, Under-12, Under-10 and Under-08.
Leading Guyana’s challenge are some of the country’s highest-rated players, including Candidate Master (CM) Taffin Khan, FIDE Master (FM) Anthony Drayton, National Chess Champion CM Sachin Pitamber, National Junior Chess Champion Kyle Couchman, and Keron Sandiford.
Khan, Drayton and Sandiford will compete in the Open section, while Pitamber will contest the Under-16 Open and Couchman the Under-18 Open.
National Women’s Champion Woman Candidate Master (WCM) Aditi Joshi will compete in the Under-16 Women’s category. Fellow Woman Candidate Masters Sasha Shariff and Jessica Callender will challenge in the Women’s section.
Other leading Guyanese competitors include Ciel Clement (Under-18 Women), Kataleya Sam (Under-14 Women), Abel Fernandez Ciria (Under-14 Open), Aiden Tinnie (Under-12 Open) and Divya Persaud (Under-12 Women).
Also representing Guyana are Parnita Kishun, Emma John, Alexander Zhang, Nicholas Zhang, Rebha Lachhman, Sana Sreebalakumar, Alek Ubaldo-Singh, Aquilani Swaminadha, Amaya Sharma, Saura Ruplall, Vir Narine, Arian Tinnie, Malia Thompson, Isabella Shariff, Mark De Freitas, Avery Munroe, and Pranav Suman.
The tournament brings together players from across the Caribbean, with Guyana competing alongside teams from Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, French Guiana/Cayenne, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, the Netherlands Antilles, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands and St. Kitts and Nevis.
Under the tournament schedule, all age-group categories—from Under-18 through Under-08—will contest their nine rounds on July 11, while the Open and Women’s competitions will be played on July 12. Final standings will be published following a review of all games on Chess Results.
Pairings will be generated using Swiss-Manager or Tornelo with the JaVaFo pairing algorithm in accordance with current FIDE regulations. Games will be played at a rapid time control of 15 minutes plus a 10-second increment per move, beginning from the first move, and the tournament will be FIDE Rapid-rated.
The Guyanese team will be monitored by FIDE Arbiter and Guyana Delegate John Lee.
The hybrid championship was introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic to allow regional competition despite travel restrictions and has continued to provide players across the Caribbean with opportunities to compete internationally without the costs associated with overseas travel.
In a statement, the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) commended the organisers for staging the event.
“The Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) commended the CCA for making the tournament a reality for so many participating countries while expressing hope that the event will one day return to its original format,” the federation said.
