The most outstanding players at next year’s Inter-Schools Chess Tournament will be afforded the opportunity to represent Guyana at regional and international levels.
This was revealed by National Sports Commission’s (NSC) Director of Sport, Christopher Jones during a recent interview.
He pointed out that the key objective is to have chess taught across Guyana not only as an extracurricular activity but also at an educational level.
The NSC has so far managed to launch the programme in schools in Regions 3, 6, 10 and 5.
“Within the four regions where we have started such programmes, we have identified six students to represent us,” Jones noted.
In 2018, the NSC partnered with the Ministry of Education and managed to conduct part one of the ‘Chess-in-Schools -Teachers’ Training Programme, which targeted teachers at the Primary and Secondary levels.
In the six-round two-day tournament earlier this year, the Saint Stanislaus College team, which included Jaden Taylor, Chelsea Juma, Ghansham Alijohn and Jorrell Troyer, finished ahead of Marian Academy and Queen’s College. Marian’s team was led by Ronan and Ethan Lee, Sasha Shariff and Odit Rodrigues while QC had the likes of Rajiv Lee, Narine Ricardo, Drupe Demetrius, Dyal Omesh and Alex Pires as a reserve.
School of the Nations’ Juilon Lord was the best U-18 player while Marcello Leonard, who represented the Hinterland Scholarship Dorms, was the best U-14 player.
