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Monday, July 21, 2025

WCM James in historic chess victory

… First fe­male to win an Open tour­na­ment

by

Sport Desk
652 days ago
20231009
Women's Candidate Master Shemilah James, left, receiving her trophy from Carlyle Maitland of the Kenneth Phillip Foundation.

Women's Candidate Master Shemilah James, left, receiving her trophy from Carlyle Maitland of the Kenneth Phillip Foundation.

Woman Can­di­date Mas­ter (WCM) Shemi­lah James scored a sur­prise vic­to­ry in the Ken­neth Phillip An­nu­al Memo­r­i­al Open Tour­na­ment and, in the process, be­came the first fe­male to win an open se­nior tour­na­ment con­test­ed by both gen­ders.

James played un­beat­en in the six-round com­pe­ti­tion, or­gan­ised by Pal­adins Chess Club some two weeks ago, at the Tu­na­puna Sec­ondary School, with four wins and two draws.

The 19-year-old edged de­fend­ing cham­pi­on In­ter­na­tion­al Mas­ter (IM) Vish­nu Singh – who fin­ished on equal points – on the tie-break sys­tem. They both end­ed on five points.

Ju­nior play­er Brad Munroe-Brown al­so had a sur­prise re­sult, snatch­ing third place, just a half point be­hind the top two. James, who lives in East Port-of-Spain, is a for­mer na­tion­al fe­male ju­nior and se­nior cham­pi­on. She has rep­re­sent­ed T&T at the World Chess Olympiad on three oc­ca­sions. Her per­son­al coach Dev Soon­dars­ingh, a cer­ti­fied FIDE In­struc­tor, has been train­ing her since she cap­tured the na­tion­al Un­der-10, 12, 14, 16, and 18 fe­male ti­tles.

Vet­er­an play­ers Doff Dray­ton, Prince Primus, Leonard Dun­can and An­drew Bowles (pres­i­dent of Pal­adins), were close be­hind on four points each while Mar­lon Austin, who start­ed strong­ly, fin­ished on three and a half points.

Tak­ing the ju­nior prizes were Hillview Col­lege stu­dent Tris­tan Siew­dass (four points), who got the bet­ter of Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, Ch­agua­nas stu­dent Kael Samuel-Bis­nath (4 points) in the tie-break for the first place prize with Samuel-Bis­nath set­tling for sec­ond and Trin­i­ty Col­lege East stu­dent Kevin Ma­haraj in third place.

Soon­dars­ingh, pres­i­dent of T&T Chess Acad­e­my and Pro­mo­tions, served as Chief Ar­biter.

The an­nu­al tour­na­ment has been spon­sored by the Ken­neth Phillip Foun­da­tion, head­ed by Car­lyle Mait­land, over the past five years. The sec­ond prize is spon­sored per­son­al­ly by In­dar­jeet Sa­hadeo who re­sides in Mi­a­mi.

Pal­adins Chess Club, found­ed in 1968, has been or­gan­is­ing the Na­tion­al Open Tour­na­ment for the past 30 years.


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