First three enter title race

FM Frank Yee, perhaps the most consistent and durable of the country’s senior players, emerged as the third qualifier with five points. The last-round encounter between former national champion Anderson Gordon and veteran Andrew Bowles provided a bit of excitement as their fortunes see-sawed during the game. With both players on four points, a victory by Gordon would have placed him third, with a better tie-break score than Yee. The game, however, was drawn. A total of 28 players took part in the qualifier which was played at St George’s College, Barataria. The first three finalists provide individual personal chess stories which already inject a measure of excitement in this year’s quest for the national championship title.

 

To start with, 24-year-old Joseph, having established himself among the country’s chess-playing elite, will be seeking to write his name a second time on the honour roll of national champions. Since 2006, the UWI student of maths and actuarial science has qualified for the finals a total of six times, winning the crown two years ago with an unbeaten score. Joseph served his “apprenticeship” at Fatima College where he had, as student rivals, a group of keen and talented youngsters, including Sean Perryman, Allan Munro, the late Denzil Gellineau of fond memory and Imran Hosein. It is a tribute to the skill and encouragement of college chess coach Aloysius Joseph that most of his charges have turned out to be prominent junior and senior players, scoring highly in open tournaments. Joseph not only led the Mucurapo college to the national inter-school championship in 2003 but also launched his competitive chess career by winning the national Under-14 and Under-16 titles. Later he capped his achievements as a junior by holding the national Under-20 championship for three consecutive years, 2006 to 2008. In his ascent to the top, the UWI student performed consistently well in open tournaments including two organised by Knights and three by Paladins.

 

Last year, for example, he scored successive victories, first in the third national qualifier and later in the Knights Open without losing a single game of the 17 he played. Esan Wiltshire, 21, graduate of Miracle Ministries College, is back in the finals for a second time. Last year he qualified in Tobago, playing unbeaten in a field of six players and scoring an upset victory over the formidable Revishen Singh. Together with Joseph, Wiltshire is another of the country’s aspiring young chess players whose impressive exploits certainly brighten the future of the game.  His career in the junior ranks was highlighted by two Under-18 championships and successes at the Orange Bowl in Miami, the Sagicor in Barbados and the Challengers Section of the Umada Cup in Trinidad two years ago. As for 39-year-old FM Frank Yee, will this be his year to ascend the national chess throne? If consistency counts for anything it may very well be. The UWI IT specialist will be campaigning in 2012 as a finalist for the 11th time, with third place being his best result so far.

 

In terms of local competition, the amiable veteran apparently has no more fields to conquer except in the national arena. Two years ago he scored a notable double, winning both the prestigious Knights Open and the second national qualifier. His first major victory was topping a formidable field in the DeVerteuil Memorial in 2007. Against foreign competition, Yee has represented T&T in several Olympiads, including those in Russia, Spain and Istanbul and in sub-zonals in Venezuela and Equador where he gained his FM title. The race for the 2012 national chess title will be decided among eleven finalists qualifying from four preliminaries, with champion FM Ryan Harper defending his crown. The second preliminary comes off in Arima immediately after the Sub-Zonals in Equador set for March 4 to 11. The third qualifier will be held in San Fernando in May, 19-20 and 26-27, and the last in Tobago on August 22 and September 10.