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Taffin Khan fully focused during the playoff

The playoff was necessitated after both players ended their encounters with nine opponents with the highest scores of 7.5 points each in the just concluded GAICO sponsored National Open tournament.

They were required to play three games of Speed Chess, with a total playing time of one hour.

Each contender was allotted 15, 10 and five minutes on the clock from the first to the third games, under the watchful eyes of Tournament Arbiter John Lee.

Loris Nathoo studying the board

The first and third games were drawn, with Khan winning the second encounter.

This is the second time Khan had to engage in a playoff to win the championship. He did so against Kriskal Persaud in 2010 when he first won the title.

How the games went

In the first match, Nathoo played the Queen’s Pawn Opening to which Khan, starting on the black pieces, responded with the less common Benoni defence.

As the game progressed, and pieces were traded off, the two queen’s began to dance across the board, with the players tempting an exchange but not following through.

As the other pieces came out of play, Khan’s queen trapped Nathoo’s king in a perpetual check that led the game to a draw.

It was in match two that Candidate Master Khan’s skills as a truly formidable opponent shone through, handing him the victory.

On the white pieces, Khan went for the standard e4 opening, to which his opponent responded with the Caro-Kann Defence, characteristic of his solid structures Nathoo opts for in his games.

After castling on the king side, Nathoo was forced to ward off an aggressive queen side attack from Khan. Khan’s dominance on the board prevailed and having cornered his opponent’s king, Nathoo resigned on move 39.

Playing the white pieces this time around, Nathoo pushed for an aggressive start with the Queen’s Pawn Opening.

Nathoo attempted to secure a strong hold on the center, but Khan responded with the Benoni defence, sacrificing a pawn aiming to regain control of the center for a positional advantage.

Nathoo’s pawn structure on the central squares may have been dismantled but he was not going to give up so easily, planting his white queen on d5.

However, he had expended much of his time and Khan had twice as much time as he did remaining on the clock. In a game of the mind, time pressure can make even the most seasoned competitors stumble.

The game broke down into a rapid sequence of exchanges which resulted in a final position of Nathoo’s solitary rook against Khan’s pawn and rook.

Finishing the game with just two seconds to spare, the players conceded a draw after Nathoo’s skillful navigation of the rook gave Khan no opportunities to do anything but continue shuffling his king around the board avoiding checks from his opponent.

Vice-president of the Guyana Chess Federation Irshad Mohamed (left) presents the championship trophy to Senior National Women’s Champion Jessica Callender

Winners rewarded

The Guyana Chess Federation used the occasion to award all the national champions of 2023, with Jessica Callender winning the Senior National Female title, and the junior open champion being Keron Sandiford.

The top 10 finishers of the junior competition were also rewarded for their efforts.

Executives of the Federation congratulated the players on their successes in 2023 and wished them well in their endeavours in the new year.

Top 10 Juniors

1. Keron Sandiford
2. Kyle Couchman
3. Ethan Lee
4. Matthew Singh
5. Oluwadare Oyeyipo
6. Ricardo Narine
7. Ronan Lee
8. Nicholas Zhang
9. Alexander Zhang
10. Kishan Puran

The top performers pose with their winnings