Vish­nu Singh con­firmed his sta­tus as one of T&T's lead­ing young ches­sists when he dom­i­nat­ed the Un­der 20 cat­e­go­ry of the Caribbean Chess Car­ni­val which end­ed on Sun­day at Queen's Roy­al Col­lege. The Ch­agua­nas Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege boy played un­beat­en over sev­en rounds, con­ced­ing a draw to Isaac Barayev, high school cham­pi­on of New York. Singh, who shares the Un­der 18 na­tion­al cham­pi­onship with Keron Cabralis, topped the 21-mem­ber field with six and a half points, scor­ing no­table vic­to­ries against Cabralis, Or­lan­do Hus­bands of Bar­ba­dos and three Venezue­lans, Miri­an Ro­driguez, Ale­jan­dro Larez Perez and Ri­car­do Perez Sanchez. Promi­nent T&T ju­nior Jayson Paul al­so had a good tour­na­ment, tak­ing sec­ond place a point be­hind Singh. Barayev, mem­ber of the US high school cham­pi­onship team, fin­ished third on five points. Be­hind him were Yu Tien Poon of Bar­ba­dos, Ri­car­do Sanchez and Rafael Guer­rero on four and a half points each. T&T's na­tion­al ju­nior cham­pi­on Joshua John­son al­so played un­beat­en as he topped the 31 play­ers in the Un­der 14 cat­e­go­ry. John­son con­ced­ed two draws to fin­ish on six points.

Half a point be­hind him were Ma­hen­dra Singh, Vish­nu's younger broth­er, and Al­l­lon Richards of Bar­ba­dos. Four play­ers tied for third place on five points each, Guiller­mo Qui­ja­da of Venezuela, Alex Wal­coltt, Shan­non Year­wood and Syl­van Year­wood. The Un­der 10 cat­e­go­ry saw two play­ers, Sean Year­wood and Isaac Pe­gus, fin­ish­ing ahead of the 18-mem­ber field, each on six points. Be­hind them were Gisell Qui­ja­da of Venezuela on five, Am­ba De Sil­va on four and a half and four play­ers on four, Cather­ine Yepez Moreno and Michelle Her­nan­dez of Venezuela, Jor­daine Ram­nar­ine and Fred­er­ick Ali. Jon Raphael Sealy emerged the on­ly play­er with a per­fect score, beat­ing all his op­po­nents in the Novices cat­e­go­ry. Be­hind him were Amy Ali, six, Athena Mar­tin and Diego Fournil­li­er, five, Jardel Dixon-Har­ry and Phillip Mo­hammed, four and a half. The Open Rapid Play tour­na­ment which was added to the Car­ni­val this year, was won Al­lan Mon­ro who topped the 28 play­er field with six points. Na­tion­al cham­pi­on FM Ryan Harp­er and Ri­car­do Sanchez Perez fin­ished sec­ond on five and a half points each. Be­hind them were Joshua John­son, five, Kevin Cu­pid and Hay­den Lee on four and a half each. The Caribbean Chess Car­ni­val, the pop­u­lar an­nu­al tour­na­ment or­gan­ised by the T&T Chess Foun­da­tion, at­tract­ed a to­tal of 98 par­tic­i­pants in­clud­ing a con­tin­gent of twen­ty from Venezuela, and en­tries from Bar­ba­dos, Suri­name and the Unit­ed States.