Isaiah McIntosh, 15-year-old student of Presentation College, has joined the elite company of Fide Masters in Trinidad and Tobago. He achieved the title by winning the recent CAC Youth tournament in Venezuela, scoring a total of seven and a half points. At present he becomes the 12th and youngest player in the country to hold the FM title.
Mcintosh's achievement, in fact, now seemed inevitable after a string of top performances at home and abroad. Indeed, with that impetus, the chess-loving teenager may now be considered a leading candidate to win the second IM title for T&T.
The young FM learned to play the royal game as a first former at Presentation College under the coaching of Naresh Bhola. He began to emerge comparatively early, winning a bronze medal at the Carifta Games in Martinique in 2012. He proceeded to win both the Under 14 and Under 16 national championships and topped the Under 14 category in the 2014 Chess Carnival.
Last January, McIntosh confirmed his emergence by taking second place to Joshua Johnson in the Under 20 National Youth Competition. And, at the recent International Masters Open, marking the 80th anniversary of the T&TCA, McIntosh had his most memorable performance so far by taking second place to Esan Wiltshire on the tie-break.
McIntosh's love for chess is clearly seen in his achievements over the board, but the youngster is also conscious of the role the celebrated mind game plays in his own mental and scholastic development. "Firstly, chess helps me to think in an orderly way," he told DR. He also believes the analytic dynamics of playing the game aid in his study of various school subjects, including mathematics and even history and literature.
McIntosh expects to take his expanding talent in the sport of chess as far as he can. He hopes eventually to study law at Oxford University but, before pursuing that lifetime ambition, T&T's youngest FM will be aiming for the game's next highest title, that of International Master. DR sincerely hopes he makes it.
McIntosh joins the list of T&T's FMs who include the towering figure of 55-year-old Cristo Cave who retired from the sport several years ago after winning the national title a total of 11 times, a record that may well be impossible to equal. Ryan Harper with six championship titles under his belt seems the only candidate likely to challenge that achievement. It appears unfortunate, in fact, that once prominent FMs as Quinn Cabralis, Marcus Joseph and Michael Pouchett have retired from the competitive field while still in the prime of their careers.
Still, young McIntosh will have the formidable rivalry of active FMs, Harper, Champion Kevin Cupid, ex-Champion Frank Yee, Adrian Winter Atwell, Joshua Johnson, Mario Merritt and Allan Munro.