Champ Munro beaten in Sagicor Chess

UNRATED Mark Richards of Trinidad and Tobago provided the upset of the third round of competition in the Sagicor Open Chess Championships when he emerged victorious over fellow countryman and defending champion Allan Munro.

On board one Barbados’ top seed Askari Elson defeated Martyn Decastillo also of Barbados after a fiercely competitive turn from both players at the board, the Bajan team kept the flag flying when Murali Areti beat Trinidad and Tobago’s Margaret Thairu. Trinidad’s Imran Hosein and Jamaica’s Junior champion Darren Wisdom battled to the only draw of the round.

The competition which was played in its entirety at the National Union of Public Workers headquarters, St Michael’s Barbados, also saw former winners Munro (2002) and Sean Perryman (1999) fall to Jamaica’s Darren Wisdom and Elson in the fourth round. The Trinidad and Tobago team was saved by the efforts of Christopher Raphael, Justin Salloum, Keron Cabralis, Alpacino Smith, Aschile Mendes and Pritvi Ramkrishnan who all won their fourth games.