THE country's youthful chess talent has now clearly shifted to the South. Where top junior players once blossomed in the North, largely in and around the capital city, the results of this month's National Junior Chess Championships now reveal a significant change; the South has become the birthplace of a vast majority of winners.
Indeed, the unexpected emergence of Naparima College boy Alan-Safar Ramoutar as champion of both the Under 14 Absolute and Under 20 Absolute categories appears symbolic of this change. The shift is also underlined by the rising performance of FM Isaiah McIntosh of Presentation College who topped the Under 18 Absolute group and placed second to Ramoutar in the Under 20 Absolute category.
National champion FM Joshua Johnson took second place in the Under 18 Absolute class and third in the Under 20 Absolute group where he scored six points, equal with Ramoutar and McIntosh.
National Women's Champion WFM Gabriella Johnson, however, has kept the nothern flag flying as she scored victories in both the Under 18 and Under 20 Female categories. It seems quite unfortunate, in fact, that the mind game has virtually lost its participation among the school-age youngsters of the North. Whatever, in fact, has become of chess activity at leading secondary schools in the capital city such as St Mary's, Queen's Royal and Fatima? Why are they no longer producing fresh generations of prominent players?
An examination of the NJCC results also clearly reveal the influence which the Grant Memorial Presbyterian School Chess Club, founded and led by businessman David Martin, has had on the growth and standard of junior chess on the South over the last decade.
Youngsters of the South, in fact, dominated the NJCC results with the majority of winners being former members of the GMPSCC who still benefit from Martin's coaching. These winners include Amy Ali, Karissa Sonoo, Mikel Martin, Varenyam Maharaj, Anusha Saha, Reece Roopnarine, Athena Martin, Keagan Ragoobar and Alyssa Sonoo. Other players in winners row were Rayden Rampersad, Dyaanand Kailyn, Javed Maharaj and Arya Maharaj.
The first of four qualifying tournaments to decide the 2017 national chess champion will beheld in Port of Spain over the next two weekends. The second qualifier takes place on 4,5,11,12 of March, the third in Tobago on 16 to 19 the fourth