Joshua John­son, three-time na­tion­al ju­nior chess cham­pi­on, is ex­pect­ed to de­fend his ti­tle when the Un­der-20 cham­pi­onship gets un­der way this week­end at Rand Cred­it Union, Aber­crom­by Street, Port-of-Spain. John­son, Fa­ti­ma Col­lege stu­dent, has al­ready re­tained the U-14 ti­tle at the Na­tion­al Ju­nior Cham­pi­onships held at St Mary's Col­lege over the last two week­ends.

Two weeks ago, John­son scored an­oth­er no­table suc­cess by top­ping the 41 play­ers in the U-14 cat­e­go­ry of the Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean Chess Fes­ti­val held in Cos­ta Ri­ca. He fin­ished on sev­en and a half points from the nine-round event, to­geth­er with Yu Tien Poon, U-14 cham­pi­on of Bar­ba­dos, who got the edge on the tiebreak.

John­son's record of achieve­ments over the last three years has made him one of the coun­try's top play­ers. At 11, he was the youngest to be­come na­tion­al ju­nior cham­pi­on and to qual­i­fy for the na­tion­al open cham­pi­onship, re­peat­ing this feat twice. He won gold and sil­ver medals at both the CAC and Carif­ta tour­na­ments and emerged Pal­adins Open cham­pi­on last year. Run­ning along­side the U-20 event will be the first con­test for se­nior play­ers over 55 years. Both events will be­gin at 10 am on Sat­ur­day and con­tin­ue on Sun­day, Jan­u­ary 25 and 26.

Re­sults

Na­tion­al Ju­nior Cham­pi­onships:

U-18 Boys: Chris­t­ian Am­mon

U-18 Girls: Ja­van­na Smith

U-16 Boys: Joshua John­son

U-16 Girls: Sadiqah Razark

U-14 Boys: Isa­iah McIn­tosh

U-14 Girls: Gabriel­la John­son

U-12 Boys: Matthew Inkim

U-12 Girls: Shemi­lah James

U-10 boys: Zi­dane Boodoo

U-10 Girls: Chaya John­son

U-8 Boys: Shel­don Year­wood;

?U-8 Girls: Mi­rakel Philips.