Junior chessists battle for Orchard $$

The competition was keen as players sought to increase their points standing in order to share in the $3,000 cash prize fund donated by title sponsors Orchard.

Prizes will be awarded at the end of the third and final leg of the series in December.

Christopher Raphael, the National Under-14 Champion played unbeaten to win the second leg of the Under-20 section with four points.

Raphael had to settle for draws against Kevin Cupid of Holy Cross College and Arima Boys’ RC’s Keron Cabralis, in rounds one and three.

However, his other three opponents — Esan Wiltshire of Queen’s Royal College, Amrit Ramdass of Presentation College, Chaguanas; and Kiran Maharaj of Trinity College East fell victim to his aggressive play.

Maharaj and Cabralis trail Raphael in second and third places respectively, with 3.5 points each.

In the Under-10 section, Prasanna Ramakrishnan of Dunross Preparatory School ended the second leg with a perfect score of seven points, thereby increasing his accumulative points to 13 and maintaining his lead in the Under-10 section.

Kellee John of Christian Primary Academy, who placed second in the first leg of the Orchard Junior Chess Grand Prix, repeated her second place performance, with five out of seven games, pushing her accumulated points by the end of the second leg to ten.

Newtown Boys’ Darron Bristol placed third with five points, increasing his overall standing to 10 points, sharing the second place with Kellee John.

Queen’s Royal College’s Jayson Paul played unbeaten to take the top spot in the Under-14 section with 4.5 points. Paul was held to a draw in game four against Joseph Gill of Fatima College.

Kerry Singh of Presentation College, San Fernando trailed with four points in second place, followed by Joseph Gill also with four points.

Prithvi Ramakrishnan of the International School of Port-of- Spain who led the Under-14 section at the end of the first leg, ended fourth in this 2nd leg, but still maintained an overall lead in the section, with an accumulated score of nine points.

Following are the accumulated points for the top three players in the second leg of the tournament:

Under-20 — Christopher Raphael 5-4 (9); Kiran Maharaj 3-3.5 (6.5); Keron Cabralis 3-3.5 (6.5)

Under-14 — Prithvi Ramakrishnan 5-4 (9); Joseph Gill 4-4 (8);

Jayson Paul 3.5-4.5 (8)

Under-10 — Prasanna Ramakrishnan 6-7 (13); Kellee John 5-5 (10); Darron Bristol 5-5 (10); Reggie Romero 5-5 (10).