With one day of games left to play in the 2020 National Chess Championship, World Chess Federation (FIDE) national master Taffin Khan on Thursday led the scores with 5½ points after six games.
Wendell Meusa was the closest competitor. However, he failed when he didn’t show up for his match against 2019 national champion Anthony Drayton. But after defeating Glenford Corlette in a twice-delayed match, Meusa was in second place with 4½ points at the time of writing this column.
A win is equal to 1 point and a draw is equal to ½ point.
After losing to Khan, Corlette and Mars during this tournament, Drayton has put himself out of contention. I am confident, however, that he will bounce back for the 2021 championship.
Yesterday’s games featured Davion Mars vs Khan, Meusa vs Rai Sharma, Errol Tiwari vs Drayton and Corlette vs Loris Nathoo. There is a possibility that if Meusa beat Sharma and Khan lost to Mars, Meusa will equal Khan in points. If such a scenario occurs, which I think is unlikely, it would be a matter of moving towards the obvious tie-breaker system to determine the 2020 national chess champion.
In the meantime, I predict the 2021 championship will intensify. The fire will emanate from the youths.