Sib­lings Shan­non and Sean Year­wood, reigned supreme as the PKF Na­tion­al Ju­nior Chess Cham­pi­onship came to an end on Sat­ur­day at St Mary's Col­lege. The four-day tour­na­ment was or­gan­ised by the T&T Chess As­so­ci­a­tion (T&TCA) and spon­sored by PKF Char­tered Ac­coun­tants and Busi­ness Ad­vi­sors. Na­tion­al Cham­pi­on FM Ryan Harp­er served as Tour­na­ment Di­rec­tor. Shan­non scored a ma­jor up­set when she de­feat­ed for­mer na­tion­al cham­pi­on Gabriel­la John­son to take the un­der-12 cham­pi­onship ti­tle. Shan­non, a 12-year-old St Joseph's Con­vent (POS) stu­dent, is a rel­a­tive new­com­er to chess hav­ing played her first na­tion­al cham­pi­onship last year. She had an ex­cel­lent tour­na­ment win­ning the over­all cat­e­go­ry six points ahead of the boys' cham­pi­on Mikel Mar­tin who end­ed on five points. Year­wood lost one game in the tour­na­ment to Luke Walk­er in round two. John­son, who won a sil­ver medal at the CAC Ju­nior Chess Cham­pi­onship in Puer­to Ri­co, placed sec­ond.

Sean took the boys un­der-ten crown af­ter win­ning a tie-break­er over Is­sac Pe­gus, af­ter they both end­ed on six points at the end of their round. Sean was among the con­tin­gent that com­pet­ed at the CAC Ju­nior Chess Cham­pi­onship re­turn­ing home with a bronze medal at his first re­gion­al tour­na­ment. Nine-year-old Shemi­lah James, emerged as the girls un­der-10 ab­solute cham­pi­on. James con­tin­ued her win­ning streak from last year when she was crowned the un­der-eight cham­pi­on. Win­ning her cat­e­go­ry with rel­a­tive ease too was CM Ja­van­na Smith in the girls un­der-16 when she beat ri­val Nikeil­ia Chu­niesingh in­to sec­ond place. Both Smith and Chu­niesingh are mem­bers of the women's team who will be rep­re­sent­ing T&T at the Chess Olympiad lat­er this year. Win­ning her first na­tion­al ti­tle was Jade Nor­eiga in the un­der-14 girls. There was much ex­cite­ment in the boys un­der-18 cat­e­go­ry when FM Keron Cabralis and Vish­nu Singh end­ed on equal points at the end of the cham­pi­onship. Fol­low­ing the tie break sys­tem, the play­ers re­mained firm­ly tied in first place. Tak­ing the third place po­si­tion was Vand­off Smith. The un­der-18 girls ti­tle went to Rhea Ec­cles.

RE­SULTS

Boys U-18:

1st- Keron Cabralis and Vish­nu Singh (tied).

3rd-Vand­off Smith

Girls U-18:

Rhea Ec­cles

Boys U-16:

1st- Chris­t­ian Am­mon

2nd- Bri­an Dixon

3rd- Dar­rien de Sil­va

Girls U-16:

1st- Ja­van­na Smith

2nd- Nike­lia Chu­niesingh

3rd- Na­jarah Ra­haman

Boys U-14:

1st- Joshua John­son

2nd- Mahin­dra Singh

3rd- Melchizedeck Pe­gus

Girls U-14

1st- Jade Nor­eiga

2nd- Tyler-Marie Mun­gal

3rd- Sadiqah Razark

Boys U-12:

1st- Mikel Mar­tin

2nd- Je­re­my Am­mon

3rd- Ris­hon Ram­lo­gan

Girls U-12:

1st- Shan­non Year­wood

2nd- Gabriel­la John­son

3rd- An­drea Joseph

Boys U-10:

1st- Sean Year­wood

2nd- Is­sac Pe­gus

3rd- Shev Na­gir

Girls U-10:

1st- Shemi­lah James

2nd- Am­ba de Sil­va

3rd- Jen­ni­ka Lynch