Jul 11, 2026
3 min read
Over 30 Guyanese chess players ranging in age from seven to 35 will compete in the CARIFTA Chess Championship Hybrid 2026, hosted by the Confederation of Chess for the Americas (CCA) and the Hybrid Circuit of the Americas.
The nine-round Swiss-format competition will be held in hybrid format via the Tornelo platform today and tomorrow, from 10:30 am to 5:15 pm each day, in accordance with FIDE Online Chess Regulations, at the Olympic House, Liliendaal.
Top players were selected to compete across eight independent tournaments: Open, Women, Under-18, Under-16, Under-14, Under-12, Under-10 and Under-08.
Guyana's top seeds CM Taffin Khan, FM Anthony Drayton, National Chess Champion CM Sachin Pitamber, National Junior Chess Champion Kyle Couchman and Keron Sandiford will compete in their respective categories. CM Khan, FM Drayton and Sandiford will play in the Open Section, while CM Pitamber will compete in the Under-16 Open and Couchman in the Under-18 Open.
National Women's Champion WCM Aditi Joshi will compete in the Under-16 Women's category, while WCM Sasha Shariff and WCM Jessica Callender will vie for placement in the Women's section. Ciel Clement will compete in the Under-18 Women's section, Under-14 and Under-16 Girls Champion Kataleya Sam will play in the Under-14 Women's category, and Under-14 Open Champion Abel Fernandez Ciria will compete in the Under-14 Open. Under-12 Champions Aiden Tinnie and Divya Persaud will compete in the Under-12 Open and Under-12 Women's categories respectively.
Other competitors include Parnita Kishun and Emma John (Under-16 Women), Alexander Zhang and Nicholas Zhang (Under-16 Open), Rebha Lachhman and Sana Sreebalakumar (Under-14 Women), Alek Ubaldo-Singh and Aquilani Swaminadha (Under-14 Open), Amaya Sharma and Saura Ruplall (Under-12 Women), Vir Narine and Arian Tinnie (Under-12 Open), Malia Thompson and Isabella Shariff (Under-10 Women), Mark De Freitas and Avery Munroe (Under-10 Open), and Pranav Suman (Under-08 Open).
Guyana will compete alongside fellow CARIFTA member countries Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, French Guiana/Cayenne, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & The Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, Turks & Caicos Islands, US Virgin Islands and St. Kitts & Nevis.
Today, the age-group categories — Under-18, Under-16, Under-14, Under-12, Under-10 and Under-08 — will compete across all nine rounds. Tomorrow, the Open and Women's categories will play their nine rounds in full. Final standings will be published following a review of all games on ChessResults.
Pairings will be managed via Swiss-Manager or Tornelo using the JaVaFo algorithm, in strict accordance with current FIDE regulations. The time control is 15 minutes plus a 10-second increment per move, starting from move one. The tournament will be FIDE Rapid-rated, with the Guyanese team monitored by FIDE Arbiter and Guyana Delegate John Lee.
The Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) commended the CCA for making the tournament possible for so many participating countries, while expressing hope that the event will one day return to its original format.