In­ter­na­tion­al Mas­ter (IM) Vish­nu Singh and Women's Na­tion­al Cham­pi­on Zara La Fleur have cap­tured the Pal­adins Chess Club’s top in­di­vid­ual awards for 2021 dur­ing a func­tion on De­cem­ber 11 in Mt Lam­bert. Pal­adins, which was found­ed in 1968, had a very suc­cess­ful year, stag­ing five hy­brid re­gion­al FIDE- rat­ed tour­na­ments in­volv­ing clubs from Venezuela, Ecuador, Pe­ru, Mex­i­co, Pana­ma and Cu­ba (FIDE is the world gov­ern­ing body for chess).

The an­nu­al Pal­adins/Ken­neth Phillip In­vi­ta­tion­al Tour­na­ment, spon­sored by the Ken­neth Phillip Foun­da­tion, was al­so played on­line fol­low­ing Covid-19 reg­u­la­tions.

Two Venezue­lans were among the ten in­vit­ed play­ers.

FIDE In­struc­tor (FI) Bhisham Soon­dars­ingh was the chief or­gan­is­er, with In­ter­na­tion­al Ar­biter (IA) Venezue­lan Ulis­es Hernán­dez serv­ing as tour­na­ment di­rec­tor and chief ar­biter, while (IA) Rus­sell Smith of T&T was the deputy ar­biter. Singh, who sur­pris­ing­ly drew his first-round game with La Fleur, won the tour­na­ment on the tie-break with FIDE Mas­ter (FM) Ryan Harp­er. Singh and Harp­er drew their en­counter. Harp­er took the sec­ond place prize. La Fleur placed third and al­so col­lect­ed the prize for the best fe­male play­er.

La Fleur had an out­stand­ing year, win­ning the na­tion­al Un­der-16 Cham­pi­onship in Jan­u­ary. She was the lone fe­male in a field of 17 play­ers. Then in March she eas­i­ly be­came the Na­tion­al Fe­male Cham­pi­on. La Fleur’s coach is FIDE In­struc­tor (FI) Dev Soon­dars­ingh.

On De­cem­ber 11 Pal­adins end­ed its year with a Christ­mas Parang Blitz tour­na­ment with 10 play­ers com­pet­ing. Women’s Can­di­date Mas­ter (CM) Adi­ti

Soon­dars­ingh, pres­i­dent of the FEMS chess club, was a guest play­er and sur­pris­ing­ly won the first prize of a turkey. She was the on­ly fe­male and played un­beat­en in the round-robin tour­na­ment.

Pal­adins 2021 Ho­n­our List

Play­er of the Year -- Vish­nu Singh

Most Valu­able Play­er of the Year -- Ryan Harp­er

Fair Play Award -- An­drew Bowles

Rook­ie of Year -- Trevor Haynes

Coach of the Year -- Dev Soon­dars­ingh

Ar­biter of the Year - Rus­sell Smith.

Fe­male Play­er of the Year -- Zara La Fleur

Most Valu­able Fe­male Play­er -- Adi­ti Soon­dars­ingh

Ju­nior of the Year -- Brad Munroe-Brown

Most Valu­able Ju­nior -- Kalel Scoon

Most Im­proved Play­er - Kevin Ma­haraj

Tour­na­ment Di­rec­tor of the Year - Bhisham Soon­dars­ingh.