Drayton wins Burnham memorial chess tourney

TIMES INT'L

The Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham memorial chess tournament concluded last weekend with Guyana’s FIDE Candidate Master, Anthony Drayton, emerging as champion at the National Resource Centre on Woolford Avenue.

On the final day of the competition, Drayton, who was in third position coming into the final two rounds, defeated Davion Mars and Alexander Duncan to increase his tally by two points to finish with a grand total of 5.5 points.

Former national junior and senior champion, Taffin Khan, also scored 5.5 points, after earning a bye from Frankie Farley and defeating Errol Tiwari on the final day, but had to be content with the second place after the tie-break system was employed.

Veteran player and former president of the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF), Errol Tiwari, was impressive during the seven-round Swiss system competition, collecting five points to take the final podium spot.

After suffering the loss to Khan, Tiwari was gifted a bye after Glenford Corlette, who was leading the points standing heading into the final two rounds, failed to show up for his match.

At one stage of the tournament, Roberto Neto had assumed the lead and at the penultimate stage was oozing confidence on three points. He managed to add another two points to his tally to capture top honours in the junior category after finishing the tournament on five points.

Davion Mars finished second in the junior division with 3.5 points, while Michael Chapp Jumbo occupied the third place spot after scoring two points. They were the only three players to compete in the junior category, and whether the GCF will stage a national junior championship this year is yet to be decided.

Since the tournament was FIDE rated, the participating players will soon earn points to improve the ranking on the world stage.

The presentation of prizes to the top performers will take place on Friday at the Carifesta Sports Club, Carifesta Avenue.

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