Trinidad and Tobago Chess Foundation




	Ammon takes PowerGen Chess Title Jeremy Ammon retained the top spot in the PowerGen Junior Open held on Saturday at St. Augustine Girls’ High School. The competition which attracted 70 players was the fourth in a series of monthly events and was organized by the Trinidad and Tobago Chess Foundation to prepare young players for the up-coming Caribbean Chess Carnival, an international tournament scheduled for August 4th to 9th at the Queen’s Park Oval. 9 year old Maria Regina Grade School’s Ammon who won the under 1200 rated section at last month’s competition repeated his performance on Saturday in the higher under 1400 rated section winning with 3.5 points out of a possible 5. Jonathan Paul of Diamond Vale Government Primary School trailed Ammon with 3 points picking up second place while Ammon’s school mate, Andre Sims had to settle for the third spot following the application of the tie-break system between Paul and himself. The battle was much tougher in the under 1600 rated section as three current national junior champions were among 12 players competing for top honours. Joshua Johnson, Trinidad and Tobago’s recently crowned National under 10 champion emerged as winner of the 5 round competition, playing unbeaten. In second and third places were Christian Ammon and Justin Labastide, National under 12 and under 8 champion respectively. In the under 1200 rated section, Reggie Jawahir won the 7 round competition followed by Dillon Kalicharan and Shabil Adbaladil in second and third place with 6 and 5 points respectively. The over 1800 rated section saw the return of some of the country’s top players who were out of competition chess due to CXC and CAPE examination preparations over the last year. This included players like Justin Salloum of St. Joseph’s Convent (POS), Kevin Cupid of Holy Cross College, Brandon Forde of Fatima College, Rafael Guerrero and Christopher Raphael of St. Mary’s College. The 6 man round robin competition ended with Brandon Forde taking first place followed by Justin Salloum in second. Third was Kevin Cupid, the 2009 National under 18 junior champion. Receiving Special prizes were Maia Labastide for best female player and 5 year old Michael Taleb, the youngest participant in the tournament. Group shot of the Prize winners Holy Faith Convent Couva team for the PowerGen Open Joshua Johnson, National under 10 Junior Champion with his parents and sisters 5 year old Michael Taleb being congratulated by his mother for his special prize, the best performance - youngest play