Soondarsingh retains national title
Nov 28, 2009 | Views:209900 |
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| Aditi Soondarsingh convincingly retained her title as women's national chess champion, winning all 11 matches in the 11-round round-robin National Championship Tournament which concluded on Sunday at ALGICO Plaza, St. Vincent Street, Port of Spain. And Marcus Joseph is the new men's national champion. Soondarsingh, a mechanical engineering student at UTT, first won the coveted title in 2004, then was a joint winner in 2006. She then won it individually in 2007, 2008 and now 2009, becoming the first female to score a hat-trick at the championship, which was revived in 2002 after an absence of 18 years. The task proved to be a challenging one as she had to fight back after being behind, going into the 'middle game', against her two toughest opponents at the weekend-Camille Chung (9 pts) and Javanna Smith (8.5 pts). Melissa Pereira placed fourth and Gabriella Johnson fifth. The five top female players are eligible to represent Trinidad and Tobago at the World Chess Olympiad next year in Russia. Joseph, the new men's national champ, majoring in mathematics at UWI, snatched the title on the tie-break system from FIDE Master (FM) Ryan Harper, both ending on nine points in the round-robin tournament. Harper, who was on course to win the championship, lost to national under-14 champ Keron Cabralis last Saturday and won against Marcus Cobham on Sunday, and had to settle for second place. Joseph won his matches against Leonard Duncan and Kishore Ramadhar. The only experienced player to survive was Cecil Lee, who won the championship in 1978. Another young star is Cabralis, who placed third and is the youngest player to have qualified to represent his country at the world chess Olympiad, which is scheduled for September 2010. Taking fourth place on the tie-break was FM Frank Yee, while former national champion Ravishen Singh finished fifth. FM Christo Cave, 13 times national champion, came on strong at the end and did not leave empty handed. Cave is the new national blitz champion. He won the nine-round blitz on the tie-break with eight points, edging out Ravishen Singh into second spot, while FM Mario Merritt took the third prize. Not to be outdone, Andrew 'Iron Man' Bowles won the TTCA Open tournament with 5.5 points from young Kevin Cupid, with 5.0 points in second place, and Hayden Lee, 5.5 in third. |
| Trinidad and Tobago Express Saturday, November 28th 2009 |
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