Yee stops Winter-Roach in Knights Open chess

Alex Winter-Roach’s whirlwind unbeaten run came to a abrupt end when he met the only other unbeaten chessist in the ENDECO sponsored Knights Open Swiss Tournament. FIDE Master Frank Yee emerged winner of their much-anticipated clash last Thursday at the DRETCHI Building, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain. Winter-Roach began with great promise against the FIDE Master in the Italian Game play and the 18-year-old could have changed the course of the match had he taken advantage of an exchange opportunity on move 32 to win a Rook for Knight.

But Yee asserted himself against his younger opponent and was able to equalise in the battle of Knights, eventually positioned his two steeds to limit Winter-Roach’s movement on the board and through subtle maneuvers brought no doubt to the outcome of the match. With his play restricted and his unbeaten record already lost Winter-Roach resigned on the 80th move to give Yee victory and leave him as the only unbeaten player in the tournament. Yee has four points while Winter-Roach has three points. Junior player Vandoff Smith kept the flag flying for his fellow juniors with a shock win over senior Arlene Blackman. And fellow junior Chris Raphael drew with the experienced Prakash Persad while Carl Jacobs beat the higher rated Jesse Sudan. Aditi Soondarsingh is presently the runaway favourite for Best Female Player of the Tournament adding the scalp of Avinash Maharaj to her collection to round off an evening of superb performances.

In other matches: Mario Merritt bt Andrew Bowles; Kishore Ramadhar def- aulted to Kurtis Chong; Dr Eddison Chang bt Kirby Hope; Prince Primus defaulted to Leonard Duncan; Louis Wiltshire bt Bryan Valentine; Ian Ramrattan bt Doff Drayton; Michael Pouchet defaulted to Cecil Lee; John Everon bt Carlyle Singh; Dev Soondarsingh bt Rafael Guerrero; Antonio Bocas defaulted to Mark Richards; Chantal Fitzpatrick and Satyam Maharaj drew.
Tomorrow Yee plays Chong; Chang meets Merritt; Wiltshire plays Duncan; Ramrattan meets Winter-Roach; Bowles plays Jacobs; Lee plays Everon; Ramadhar plays Drayton; D Soondarsingh plays Valentine; A Soondarsingh plays Sudan; Richards plays Hope; Primus faces Smith; Blackman plays Raphael; Persad meets Guerrero; Singh plays A Maharaj; S Maharaj faces Bocas.