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Press Release from the Guyana Chess Federation

Candidate Master Taffin Khan emerged victorious at the President’s Cup Rapid Chess Tournament, with Woman Candidate Master Aditi Joshi seizing the female crown.

The long-awaited chess competition, organised by the Guyana Chess Federation, was graciously hosted by His Excellency President Dr. Irfaan Ali on Sunday, December 1, 2024, under the Benab at State House, Main Street, Georgetown.

Eighty-two chess players participated in the seven-round Swiss event under a time control of 15 minutes per player, with a five-second increment after each move.

The one-day tournament was played in two categories: Open and Female, attracting chess players from every skill level.

The Open section saw substantial competition from the 52 contenders, the youngest player at seven years of age, while in the Female section, 28 women and girls competed for a chance to be among the prize winners.

CM Khan played unbeaten with 6.5 points with his draw against FM Anthony Drayton. Drayton, also unbeaten, placed second with six points, after conceding draws to Khan and Saeed Ali. Ali placed third with 5.5 points, with his only loss being against CM Khan.

Young Alexander Zhang placed fourth with 5.5 points, while Junior Chess Champion Ricardo Narine placed fifth with five points.

WCM Aditi Joshi, once again lived up to expectations, scored wins over her five female opponents and two draws against WCM Jessica Callender and Treskole Archibald ending with six points.

Callender earned the second-place spot with 5.5 points with WCM Sasha Shariff and young Anya DeGroot placing third and fourth, respectively, with 5.5 points each. Ciel Clement placed sixth with five points.

Trophies and cash prizes amounting to five hundred thousand dollars were presented to players in the top five positions in each category.

Gift certificates totaling G$40,000 and medals were also presented to Best Under-12 and Best Under-14 winners in each category, while cash prizes amounting to G$40,000 went to the Best Under-16 and Best Under-20 winners in each category.

Alek Ubaldo-Singh and Saura Ruplall took home the Best Under-12 prizes for their categories, while Nicholas Zhang and Emma John won the Best Under-14 prizes.

The Best Under-16 prizes went to Kyle Couchman and Tharisha Montes De Oca while Kishan Puran and Treskole Archibald each won the best Under-20 prizes in the open and female categories, respectively.

These prizes were presented to all the winners by His Excellency Dr. Irfaan Ali in a short presentation ceremony at the end of the tournament.

The GCF wishes to thank His Excellency for hosting the President’s Cup, providing the cash prizes and trophies, and for the words of encouragement and support offered to all the chess players.

The President also pledged 500 chess sets in his commitment to ensure the game remains inclusive to all Guyanese players who are eager to learn new skills.

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Outgoing Chinese Ambassador Guo Haiyan on Wednesday night highlighted that bilateral trade between Guyana and China skyrocketed to US$800 million (or about G$167.6 billion) in the first half of 2024.

“Practical cooperation between China and Guyana has made significant progress.

“In the first half of this year, our bilateral trade reached $800 million, reflecting a 31% year-on-year increase,” the Ambassador said at her farewell reception held at the Pegasus Suites, Kingston, Georgetown.

Trade between China and Guyana has been steadily increasing. At the end of 2023, bilateral trade was pegged at US$1.23 billion.

A number of large projects, including the new Demerara Harbour Crossing, are being undertaken by Chinese firms.

Ambassador Guo also noted that contracts for the Guyana Utility- Scale Photovoltaic Programme and the new Mackenzie/ Wismar Bridge were inked this year. These are other major projects that involve the Chinese.

But the trade relationship, she explained, is part of a wider Guyana/ China partnership that now spans more than 50 years.

“The China- Guyana relationship is rooted in a profound historical and political foundation and enjoys the high regard of our two Heads of State, and receives widespread support from the two peoples.

“… Both China and Guyana adhere to people- centres development with economics mutually complementary and opportunity- filled,” Haiyan noted.

She also affirmed that China remains a committed partner of Guyana.

Guyana’s Prime Minister Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips hailed the China/ Guyana relationship, and commended Haiyan for the work done while serving here.

According to him, Chinese expertise has helped Guyana in the areas of healthcare, agriculture, renewable energy initiatives and commerce.

“May the bonds of friendship between our nations continue to strengthen and may the seeds of cooperation you have sown bear fruits for generations to come.

“I look forward to welcoming your successor as we continue to navigate this landscape of progress for both our nations,” the Prime Minister said.

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Guyanese seeking opportunities to advance their tertiary education can now apply for a scholarship through the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) programme.

The application portal is now open, and prospective students are being encouraged to apply before the 11:59 (pm) February 28, 2025, deadline.

Interested individuals can access a wide range of programmes at various levels, including vocational certificates, undergraduate diplomas, undergraduate degrees, postgraduate diplomas, master’s degrees, and doctoral degrees – free of cost.

The government has partnered with accredited local and international academic institutions to administer these programmes, including the University of West Indies (UWI and the University of South California, among others.

A brainchild of President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali, this programme offers Guyanese a unique opportunity to attain higher education, allowing them to become highly skilled and participate in national development.

Since its introduction in 2021, GOAL has opened doors for thousands of Guyanese, with 29,758 scholarships awarded to date. This number is significant as it surpasses the initial target of 20,000 for the 2021-2025 period.

These scholarships were awarded to individuals from the ten administrative regions, with the numbers increasing yearly. Based on statistics provided by GOAL, 6,280 scholarships were awarded in 2021, 7,410 in 2022, 7,752 in 2023 and a massive 8,316 in 2024.

Notably, around 6,624 scholars have completed their programmes, contributing to their development of skills in various fields.

For additional information on how to apply, persons can visit https://goal.edu.gy/.

Launched in 2021, the Guyana Online Academy (GOAL) is a part of the Government of Guyana’s transformative agenda to have an educated workforce, that will complement the massive transformation (Republished from the Department of Public Information)

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Guyana’s tissue culture facility is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2025, significantly boosting plantlet production from 13,000 to one million annually.

During a community engagement at the Beterverwagting Community Centre last Saturday, Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha highlighted that the tissue culture facility will play a vital role in addressing the growing demand for planting materials and advancing the country’s food production efforts.

Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha speaking at a community meeting at Beterverwagting

He noted that the eleven nurseries currently operational across the country cannot meet farmers’ increasing needs for planting materials.

“The couple of seeds and planting materials that we are giving out cannot prepare our country to be that food hub that we want it to be. This tissue culture lab will produce millions of planting materials… We have an international company that is working with us,” the agriculture minister said.

The tissue culture and micropropagation facility is being constructed at the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) at Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara.

Once operational, the lab will have the capacity to produce a wide variety of planting materials, including all types of citrus plants, tailored to meet farmers’ specific needs.

The state-of-the-art facility will produce high-yielding, disease- and pest-resistant plantlets, eradicating the need for farmers to utilise chemicals on their farms.

Last year, the Government of Guyana through the Ministry of Agriculture and the Energy Resource Institute (TERI) of India inked an agreement to create the facility.

A plantlet is a miniature or young plant that is produced on the leaf margins or the aerial stalks of another plant.

Micropropagation is a technique for propagating plants by using minuscule fragments of plant tissue extracted from a carefully selected and prepared mother plant, and growing them in a laboratory setting to create new plants.

Through directed investments and climate-smart agriculture practices, Guyana continues to position itself as the leading food exporter in the Caribbean region, while contributing to the reduction of the region’s food import bill by the end of 2025 (Republished from the Department of Public Information)

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A thrilling match between Rangpur Riders and Guyana Amazon Warriors provided plenty of excitement in the ExxonMobil Guyana Global Super League (GSL) with Riders pulling off a 15 run victory that saw them leapfrog Hampshire Hawks in the table.

Riders captain Nurul Hasan won the toss and elected to bat first, a decision that looked for all intents and purposes to have not worked out when his side were skittled for 117 runs.

A procession of Riders wickets fell from the get go, they found themselves 14/4 and 27/5 as their top order was blown away by the Warriors bowling outfit.

The Warriors shared the wickets around but Dwayne Pretorious was the pick of them, an impressive performance in Providence saw him take three wicekts and only concede 15 runs on a night when they were a particularly precious commodity.

If it wasn’t for a skilful and obdurate knock from Khushdil Shah then the Riders wouldn’t have posted three figures. As it happened, Shah made a crucial half century, patiently working the ball into the gaps, frustrating the Warriors bowlers before growing in stature to find the boundary and eke the Riders run rate upwards.

His 58 off 47 balls included two fours and four sixes with the next highest score coming from his captain, Hasan, who posted 15 off 26 to provide some solidity in the middle overs.

In response, Warriors found the going with the bat equally tough. Moeen Ali and Pretorious fell cheaply at the top of the order and once Shimron Hetmyer was scudded out for a first ball duck by Kamrul Islam Rabbi then the home side were in all sorts of trouble at 7/3 and then 27/5, a teetering score that the Riders had found themselves on an hour earlier.

Warriors couldn’t dig themselves out of the hole as effectively however, Shai Hope was dismissed by Rishad Hossain for 35 off 44 at the start of the 18th over and from there the Warriors were reliant on their bowlers to try and haul them over the line.

Romario Shepherd kept his side in the hunt by smearing Khushdil for six in the penultimate over to leave 16 runs needed off the final six balls albeit with no wickets in hand for the Warriors.

Shepherd couldn’t finish the job, falling off the first ball off the last over caught by Wayne Madsen off Kamrul Islam Rabbi as the Warriors were consigned to 102 all out and a second defeat of their GSL campaign.

They now face a nervous wait to see the results of Thursday’s double header and whether they have done enough to secure a slot in Friday’s inaugural GSL final. (GSLT20)

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From January to October 2024, visitor arrivals rose by 15 per cent compared to the same period in 2023 totalling close to 300,000 visitors, Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce Oneidge Walrond reported on Wednesday.

At a year-end press briefing at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Liliendaal, she noted a substantial increase in visitors’ arrival.

“Visitor arrivals in October 2024 has increased by 22.5 per cent compared to October 2023,” she shared.

“Every single year we are seeing this trend for every single corresponding month…we are seeing an increase for every single month and this is as a result of a strategic vision to bring visitors to Guyana; build out more tourism products,” she added.

According to her, 46 per cent of such visitors come from the USA, 28 per cent from the Caribbean, eight per cent from Canada, and six per cent each from Europe, Latin America and other markets.

“Nine out of the 10 months for 2024 have been record-breaking,” she expressed, adding, “With robust bookings reported by airlines for the Christmas period, this upward trajectory is expected to continue and these numbers highlight that Guyana is quickly becoming a destination of choice.”

For this year also, she revealed that 26 bed and breakfast properties have been approved, and that 15 new tourism experiences were launched.

Such are not only found in Georgetown, she noted, but in various regions across the country so that many communities are beginning to feel the economic impact.

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Local fish researcher Devya Hemraj couldn’t be more excited to reveal her findings from a recently conducted expedition which revealed a whopping 15 new confirmed species of the 160 fresh water fishes that were found.

Hemraj is a passionate member of the fish team that conducted Rapid Biodiversity Inventory in the Acarai-Corentyne Corridor recently, located in southern Guyana and said to be one of the country’s most remote locations.

At an event earlier this week to present the preliminary findings of the inventory done over a 20-day period by the Protected Areas Commission, the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, and numerous local Guyanese institutions, Devya shared the story.

Even as she has been traveling in Guyana for many years conducting fish research and being in many river basins, Devya shared that this latest experience was by far the most intact habitat that she’s ever encountered.

“Over three weeks, we used a bunch of different fishing gears to ensure we captured as much fish species that we possibly could. From this, we yielded 160 species of fresh water fishes and from this, 15 are confirmed new species or new records for Guyana. What’s even more exciting is that more than 20 of the species that we collected are new to science,” she disclosed.

She used the occasion to point out that of the four main drainages in Guyana, the team sampled two of them and could have possibly done another if it were to extend the corridor a few kilometers north to include the headwaters of the Berbice River.

“The Berbice River has a large amount of endemic species, meaning that the fishes there can only be found there and nowhere else. So by including all three headwaters, we are preserving and protecting fish species that are only found in that part of Guyana,” she explained.

She also pointed out the need for the local knowledge of the indigenous communities to be preserved.

“These folks have been living in this area for many years using fishes in the area for food and they have been doing so sustainably. They know exactly what gear type to use to capture certain species, and they know the location of where they can find all these fishes.”

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Pooran Singh, the 52-year-old businessman who was arrested after fatally shooting a man he claimed was attempting to steal from his property, was placed on $1 million station bail Wednesday afternoon.

Police Headquarters, in a statement, said the file on Singh’s matter has also been sent to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions for legal advice.

Businessman in police custody after fatal shooting of alleged thief

THE INCIDENT

Singh went to the Vigilance Police Station on Sunday to report that he had discharged his licensed 9mm pistol after spotting a man removing Heineken beers from his premises at about 02:30 hrs.

According to Singh’s account, he witnessed the theft unfolding on his property and reacted by firing his weapon.

The man collapsed and was found motionless.

Emergency medical technicians (EMT) arrived at the scene and pronounced the individual dead, before transporting the body to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) for further examination. The identity and address of the deceased remain unknown.

Following the shooting, Singh was arrested, and his firearm was seized by police.

The businessman’s premises is equipped with several CCTV cameras, but Police have not yet confirmed whether footage of the incident has been recovered. Furthermore, the authorities did not clarify whether the shooting took place inside or outside Singh’s yard.

Crucial details were not made available to the public until Wednesday, December 4 —four days after the incident and after several questions were raised by the press and on social media.

The information provided to the media came directly from Senior Superintendent Ewart Wray, the Regional Commander.

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