Yu Tien Poon, Under-14 chess champion of Barbados, and Joshua Johnson, U-20 champion of T&T, finished ahead of the 41 players who contested the U-14 category of the Central American and Caribbean Chess Festival held recently in Costa Rica.
The two youngsters scored seven and a half points each from the nine-round tournament, a full point ahead of second -placed Dominican Republic's Alejandro Nieto and Cuba's Javier Rodriguez Rodriguez. Poon, who won his individual game against Johnson, was given first place via the tie-break system.
He played unbeaten, conceding three draws to Nieto, Rodriguez and CM Juan Marquez of Cuba. Johnson, apart from his loss to Poon, was held to one draw by Juan Jose Devila Blanco of Puerto Rico.
The rise of Poon and Johnson as leading juniors over the last few years, both in their own countries and within the region, has a produced an interesting rivalry which had one climax at the CAC Festival. The Barbadian youngster burst into the spotlight at the age of nine when he won the U-12 section of the Sagicor Championships with a perfect score of six points out of six rounds. Since then he has performed creditably in tournaments at home and abroad. Johnson has an impressive record as T&T's junior champion, winner of open tournaments, qualifier in national championships and gold medallist in regional contests.
A total of 13 T&T players contested the CAC Festival which was held in six age groups from Under-8 to Under-18. Apart from T&T and Barbados, other countries taking part were Venezuela, Cuba, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Suriname, El Salvador and Aruba.
Other creditable performances by T&T youngsters came from Sean Yearwood, third among the U-10 boys; Shemilah James, fourth among U-10 girls; Chaya Johnson, third among U-8 girls and Shannon Yearwood sixth among U-14 girls.