Kumar, Sikivou sure starters in Vodafone chess championship

Vodafone Fiji has partnered with the Fiji Chess Federation to host the 2023 National Blitz Chess Championship at Fiji Olympic House in Suva on Saturday.

While top seeds Candidate Master (CM) Manoj Kumar and National Chess Champion CM Taione Sikivou are sure starters, more than 100 enthusiasts are expected to be part of the programme starting, at 11am and rounding up by 5pm.

Other ex-Olympiad reps on the list include CM Ronald Terubea, national women’s chess champion Tanvi Prasad of Jai Narayan College, Provisional FIDE Master (FM) Rudr Prasad, Provisional Women’s Candidate Master (WCM) Cydel Terubea, Prashil Prakash, Prashant Sarup and WCM Gloria Sukhu.

“On behalf of all chess players in Fiji we would like to acknowledge the kind support of Vodafone Fiji for providing a prize pool of cash and smartphones,” general secretary Goru Arvind said.

“The tournament will be preceded by our Annual General Meeting (AGM) at 9am on the same day.”

Upcoming Under-18 players like CM Manoj Kumar trained Zayne Elmond Keshwan, Anisha Eshal Bari, nine-year old Yash Yuvaan Prasad, Ayush Chand of Jai Nayaran College, Ryan Kumar, Anush Shay Chand, Arnav Lal are highly likely to give stiff competition to all senior player.

“Blitz is more like a freestyle form of chess where players must manage their base time of 5 minutes with 3 seconds per move,” adds Arvind.

“According to Arvind the younger players must play at lightning speed; this will drill down to who makes the first big mistake under time pressure. In this form of chess, anything is possible.”

CM Sikivou and Provisional WCM Tanvi Prasad will represent Fiji in the 2023 Oceania Zonal Chess Championship.