former champ Raphael upset in Knights chess

The second round of the 30th Knights Open Chess tournament produced an upset when veteran player Andrew Bowles beat John Raphael, a former national champion, in 32 moves.

With the win Bowles now shares the lead with other round two victors; Christo Cave, Frank Yee, Cecil Lee, Ryan Harper, Yogendranath Ramsingh, Mario Merritt, and Cesar Ramos who all reside at the two-point mark for the moment. Bowles opened with his King’s pawn prompting Raphael to adopt the Queen’s Fianchetto defence. Bowles, seeing his chance pounced on his opponent, sacrificing a Knight for two of his opponents pawns leaving Raphael’s King open. Bowles was unrelenting and kept his opponent on his toes at every step of the game. Cave secured his win playing the sturdy French defence against Leonard Duncan who never had an opportunity to return an attack on Cave. He locked the board down and moved freely to take two of Duncan’s pawns and the game.

In other matches on the day Ryan Harper beat Guelmo Rosales; Mario Merritt beat Nicholas Chin; Cesar Ramos beat Kenneth Fitzpatrick; Frank Yee beat Mark Guy; Cecil Lee beat Sylvan Seaforth; Darryl Davis drew with John Everon; Yogendranath Ramsingh beat David Jones; Arlene Blackman beat Michael Cedeno; Louis Wiltshire beat Ian Solomon; Jesse Sudan beat Trevor Flower; David Maynard beat Everol Francois; Brian Valentine beat Ian Ramrattan; Errol Dulgar beat Zane Campbell by default; Patrick Anthony beat Satyam Maharaj by default; Prakash Persad beat Dev Soondarsingh; Daniel Primus beat Aditi Soondarsingh; and Carl Jacobs beat Garth Stoute by default. This year’s tournament is sponsored by Algico, EndecoTrinidad Ltd, KMPG Chartered Accountants, and the estate of the late Sonny Baggan the Himalaya Club and the Trinidad and Tobago Chess Association.

Tomorrow will see another round of matches at the Dretchi Building from 7 pm: Christo Cave vs Frank Yee, Cecil Lee vs Ryan Harper, Yogendranath Ramsingh vs Mario Merritt, Cesar Ramos vs Andrew Bowles, John Raphael vs Darryl Davis, John Everon vs Leonard Duncan, Guelmo Rosales vs David Maynard, Nicholas Chin vs Errol Dulgar, Patrick Anthony vs Kenneth Fitzpatrick, Mark Guy vs Daniel Primus, Prakash Persad vs Sylvan Seaforth, Jesse Sudan vs Carl Jacobs, Brian Valentine vs Arlene Blackman, Michael Cedeno vs Louis Wiltshire, Ian Ramrattan vs David Jones, Ian Solomon vs Trevor Flower, Aditi Soondarsingh vs Everol Francois, Zane Campbell vs Dev Soondarsingh; Garth Stoute vs Satyam Maharaj.