Raphael stars in Orchard junior chess

Raphael, a Form Two student of St Mary’s College, playing in his first tournament since winning the National Championship in February, ended the Orchard Grand Prix with a perfect score of five out of five to take first place.

His toughest game came in the final round against Keron Cabralis of Arima Boys RC School, who is also Trinidad and Tobago’s Under-12 Champion.

Cabralis, playing with the White pieces started with the King pawn opening and Raphael responded with the Sicilian defence.

The game was closely fought until young Cabralis made an unsound sacrifice of a Knight for two pawns, leaving his Queenside vulnerable for attack. Raphael capitalised on this weakness to win the game on move 32.

Jane Kennedy and Cornelius Ramcharan were first and second runners-up respectively with four points each. Sixteen players took part in this section.

In the Under-14 section, from a field of 32 players, Prithvi Ramakrishnan of the International School of Port-of-Spain won all of his games and his perfect end score of five points took him to first place.

Ramakrishnan’s strongest challenge came from Alpacino Smith of St Anthony’s College in the final round. Smith, who was the more experienced player, refused a draw offer from Ramakrishnan hoping to win by the clock when the time allotted for the game runs out.

With one minute left on his clock to complete his game, Ramakrishnan played lightning fast moves promoting his pawn to a Queen and delivering checkmate to Smith within mere seconds of his sudden death time limit. Alpacino Smith had to settle for second with four points, with Joseph Gill of Fatima College in third place, also with four points.

Prasanna, younger brother of Prithvi Ramakrishnan scored six out of a possible seven points and finished ahead of 22 players to take top spot in the Under-10 age group.

Prasanna, a pupil of Dunross Junior School lost his first game to Kellee John of Christian Primary Academy, who came in second with five points, followed by Johnathan Chong of Holy Name Preparatory School also with five points.

The tournament, sponsored by Orchard was the first in a series of three events that would be held throughout the country in support of the Trinidad and Tobago Chess Foundation’s chess training initiative in Port-of-Spain, South, East and Arima.