A rising star on the Guyanese chess scene, young Pooja Lam took her first national title after playing chess for just about two years.
She finished ahead of more seasoned players such as 20-year-old Jessica Callender, a top prize winner in several chess tournaments in the early part of 2022, and 18-year-old Sasha Shariff, who had held the women’s title since 2020.
14-year-old Lam clinched the title on Sunday, May 29th, 2022, at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence.
She suffered no losses in the 2022 KFC Women National Chess Championship, making draws against Shariff and Callender and scoring victories over Waveney Johnson, Angel Rahim, Alexia McAdam, Anaya Lall, Nellisha Johnson, Adia Alphonso and Maliha Rajkumar.
“Winning the Women’s Championship was always a goal of mine for the far future since I didn’t believe I was strong enough or capable enough to actually win the championship at this stage in my chess development. The result came as a quite unexpected but pleasant surprise,” said the happy champion.
This win solidifies her place on the Guyana 2022 Women’s National Chess Team to represent the country at the 44th Chess Olympiad in India.
Text: Jessica Callender / mtvgy.com
Photo: mtvgy.com/