Vishnu Singh, a student of Presentation College, Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago’s Junior Champion, finished unbeaten en route to winning the Under-20 Category and the top-prize of $1,800 at the 2014 Caribbean Chess Carnival tournament.

The three-day event, a seven-round international competition organized by the Trinidad and Tobago Junior Chess Foundation and sponsored by First Citizens Asset Management Limited, came to an exciting end at the National Academy of the Performing Arts.

Vishnu Singh who holds the International Chess Federation’s title of Candidate Master confirmed his status as T&T’s leading junior chessists when he dominated the 13-member field in the under 20 category of the Caribbean Chess Carnival. The Presentation Chaguanas College boy played unbeaten over seven rounds scoring victories against his fellow countrymen Simon Ramdath, Dimitri Pacheco, Christian Ammon, Sylvan Yearwood, Shawnea Andrews and his sibling Mahendra. Allon Richards, the lone overseas player in the section from Barbados proved to be no match for Singh and fell victim to him in round five.

Prominent T&T junior Simon Ramdath also had a good tournament, taking second place two points behind Singh. Vishnu’s younger brother Mahendra finished with four and half points which gave him third place ahead of Dimitri Pacheco, Allon Richards and Christian Ammon on tiebreak.

T&T’s youngest Candidate Master Sean Yearwood, a student at Trinity Junior School also played unbeaten as he topped the 14 players in the Under 12 Section of the competition. Yearwood, who has an international rating of 1653, repeated his performance from 2013 finishing with a perfect score of seven points. Behind him was Matthew Inkim in second with five and a half points and Reece Roopnarine in third with five points. They were followed by Reece Singh (fourth with four and a half points) and Tryell Lewis fifth with four points.

The Under 14 Category saw Isaiah Mc Intosh of Presentation College finishing the seven round contest ahead of the 11 member field on six and a half points. Behind him were Shannon Yearwood on five and a half, Mikel Martin on five, Jon Raphael Sealy on four and a half and Karissa Sonoo and Rishon Ramlogan on four points.

Suriname’s Fardeen Niamat scored five and a half points taking the top spot in the Under 10 Section. Behind him were Christian Mack on five, Athena Martin on four and a half, Chaya Johnson also on four and a half followed by Anusha Saha on three points.

The Novice Category, open to local players only, saw Avash Persad of Hillview college unbeaten in the 27 member field, topping the division with victories in all seven of his games. Olubayo Ollivierre who also had a good tournament ended one point behind Persad in second with 6 points. Third to sixth places respectively were filled by Zevanne Blaize, Collette Squires, Omari Watts and Sheldon Yearwood all finishing on 5 points.