Drayton, Joshi among the leaders after round two
After two rounds on Saturday in the Guyana Chess Federation’s (GCF) 2024 National Open Championship Qualifiers, FIDE Master (FM) Anthony Drayton and National Women’s Championship runnerup, 13-year-old prodigy Aditi Joshi, were among the leaders from a field of 42 participants.
Playing at the School of the Nations facility in New Market Street, Drayton and Joshi are among four players tied for the top spot with two points each (including tie-breaks at 2) after the first two rounds. The other two players are Loris Nathoo and Sachin Pitamber.
Drayton got past Ciel Clement and Ricardo Narine in his two games, while Joshi saw off challenges from Alek Ubaldo-Singh and Justino DaSilva.
Meanwhile, Nathoo dispatched Jeremy Cole and Rashad Hussain to chalk up his two points, with Pitamber gaining his points by virtue of wins over Aftab Khan and Emmanuel Washington.
Occupying the fifth spot on the ranking table is Antoine Alexander, who is also on two points but with a tiebreak of 1.5. Alexander got past Aquilani Swaminadha and Kim Shing Chong.
In sixth, with tie-break points of 1 apiece and two points each, are Kyle Couchman, Ethan Lee, and Keron Sandiford.
Closing out the top 10 in 9th position are Jaden Taylor and Kishan Puran, who are tied at 1.5 points each.
The National Open Championship qualifiers will continue on May 18, 19,
and 25, with the five remaining rounds to be played, all at the same venue.
The top nine players from the qualifiers
will move on to face National Champion CM (Candidate Master) Taffin Khan in the 2024 National Championship, which is
scheduled for shortly after the end of this qualification tournament.