New spirit in Guyana chess

The prospect of reviving the English-speaking Caribbean Chess Championship remains in the realm of wishful thinking. However desirable this “consummation” may be, there is, in fact, no formal communication among the official chess bodies of the Caribbean in terms of exchanging ideas and discussing ways to collaborate on advancing the game regionally. But as chess continues to develop in each Caribbean country, Double Rooks (DR) feels constrained to make the point anew, that the sport can play a unique role in uniting the peoples of the region, in fostering inter-nation friendships and in enhancing the consciousness that history has imposed on us. Indeed, it is DR’s view that chess may even be more effective in advancing this objective than cricket because, competitively speaking, it involves more players of all ages.

 

In this context, then, the progress that the sport is making in Guyana is welcome. In his acceptance speech, recently re-elected president of the Guyana Chess Federation Shiv Nandalall looks forward to another “hectic year” for the Royal Game. “We hope to have at least one tournament featuring foreign players, preferably from the Caribbean and maybe Central America,” he announced. “Apart from that we will have our usual national and schools championship. We had a busy year last year and this year should be no different.” Chess players across the region would be delighted by the GCF plan to launch an annual international tournament since it would create more opportunities for top-class competition among players of the Caribbean and beyond, serving also to advance ELO ratings. Nandalall, who was re-elected unopposed for a second term, also indicated that his executive “will vigorously pursue educating the young population on the benefits of the game by making further inroads into the school system.”

 

Indeed, it seems that the GCF has taken its chess-in-schools initiative way ahead of the T&T Chess Association’s efforts thanks largely to the positive partnership it has formed with the Sport and Education Ministries. According to the GCF president, its success in this endeavour was capped by a nationwide schools chess championship.  “This is an area of interest to us, getting more youngsters into the game,” Nandalall added. “We want to spread the game as far and wide as possible....it will be a slow process, but we are prepared to make the sacrifice.”

In pursuit of this goal, the GCF “will work on having more tournaments played in rural areas - a plan that was put into action towards the tail end of 2011,” the president noted. He hinted also at the possibility of hosting “Introduction to Chess” programmes during the break between school terms. Finally, Nandalall expressed the Federation’s gratitude for the sponsorship of the private sector which he said was “a vital partner for the development and expansion of the game.”

 

Nandalall’s address was encouragingly upbeat and we can only hope that it spells a fresh and consistent period of development of the sport in Guyana, bringing it on par with the standards achieved in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. Guyana’s chess community, in fact, can look no further for inspiration than its own distinguished history, with the country dominating the Caribbean chess scene in the eighties. As  Chet Singh has reminded them in a letter to the Stabroek News, Guyana produced a crop of legendary players during that period. They included Maurice Broomes who became Caribbean Champion and Andrew Walker, the Junior Caribbean Champion. Also in that impressive company, as far as Singh could remember, were Gordon Broomes, Edan Warsali, John Macedo, Anthony Dowding, Keith Simpson and juniors such as Louis Wharton, Tony Hanoman, Anand Sawh, Shailendra Sawh, Daniel Fung, Ray Grant and Jude-Philip Neri “who held their own in any tournament both local and international.”

 

Singh describes a virtual golden age of chess in Guyana when the game was played on a daily basis with regular bi-weekly tournaments. “You could find players competing at all hours at the chess hall on Main Street” he recalls, noting that the game also took hold in secondary schools with prominent players, including himself, serving as volunteer coaches. The letter writer also welcomed the return to the game of veteran Roy Sharma once dubbed the “Speed King” for his excellence at rapid play and for his willingness to assist youngsters in improving their game.

A fresh and enthusiastic spirit now seems to have infused the sport of chess in Guyana, one that DR hopes would lead not only to a new “golden age” in that country but also to its full return to the Caribbean chess arena.