Junior chessists sweep Miami contest

A TEAM representing the Trinidad and Tobago Chess Foundation dominated the team and individual events in the Under-12 divisions of the Junior Orange Bowl International Scholastic Championship staged at the Embassy Suites Hotel, Miami, Florida, last week. Also the Chess Foundation’s Under-9 and Under-12 teams took top honours in  their respective divisions. The Under-9 quartet of Keron Cabralis, Prithvi Ramakrishnan, Rafael Guerrero and Vandoff Smith earned first place finish with 20 points.

They finished  ahead of Liguanea Jamaica Chess Club and Virginia Scholastic Chess Association of the USA who ended the tournament in second and third place with 17.5 and 16.5 respectively. Eleven teams participated in this contest. In the Under-12 division, the team of Christopher Raphael, Justin Salloum, Sinead Furlong, Alpacino Smith and Kimberly Salloum took the top spot ahead of 10 teams with 18.5 points edging out their nearest rivals Virginia Scholastic Chess Association by half of a point. Virginia ended with 18 points followed by Miami Chess Academy who took third place with 16.5 points.

In the individual categories Chess Foundation players Prasanna Ramakrishnan, Javanna Smith and Ronnie Nelson dominated the Under-6 division taking the top three spots. In the Under-9 division Keron Cabralis of the TTCF played undefeated to win the seven round event with 6.5 points.  Cabralis’ biggest challenge came in Round 6 against defending champion Sam Silverman of the US. Silverman, who is regarded as Miami’s star player as well as the top rated player in the Under- 9 section, was the tournament favourite. Until their encounter in Round 6 both Cabralis and Silverman played unbeaten. Cabralis, an unknown to the Americans was not considered by them to be a threat for their young star player. In their dramatic Round 6 game encounter Silverman lost succumbed to Cabralis’ attack with the white pieces after he fell in an opening trap set by Cabralis on move 11.

The game lasted 19 moves. Cabralis went on to draw his final game against Jamaican Tewanna Mellace to win the tournament with 6.5 points. Sam Silverman ended second with 6 points followed by Juan Fernando Escobar of Colombia who also ended with 6 points but edged out by Silverman with the tie-break system. Jamaican Tewanna Mellace came in fourth with 5.5 points. Prithvi Ramakrishnan of the Chess Foundation and Vandoff Smith ended in 8th and 10th position respectively. In the Under-12 division (individual) 2000 rated Adithya Balasubramahian of the USA won with perfect score of 7 out of 7. Barbadian Justin Blackman ran second with 5.5 points with Juan Marquez of Curacao 3rd with 5.0 points. Alpacino Smith, Justin Salloum and Christopher Raphael of the TTCF ended with 5 points each to take fourth, fifth and seventh places respectively.

Accompanying the juniors were Edison Raphael, President of the Trinidad and Tobago Chess Foundation, who attributed the team’s success to their participation in an intensive training programme initiated by the Foundation last year. This was coupled with the hard work done by the juniors in preparing for this top level event he said.. According to Raphael, winning this event is a significant achievement for junior chess in Trinidad and Tobago. “We have not had this type of success in chess for several years and we in the Chess Foundation hope that our accomplishments in Miami would encourage more of our young players to aspire to achieve greatness at this level and beyond,” Raphael said. The Junior Orange Bowl is home to the world’s largest international youth sports and arts festival. The International Youth Festival is comprised of over 20 events from October to January, including the International Scholastic Chess Championships. The tournament was in its seventh year. One hundred and forty -two players from eight countries including Barbados, Colombia, Curacao, Ecuador, Jamaica, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago and USA participated in this year’s championships.