HARRISON COLLEGE are the champions in the Massy United Insurance Inter-School chess championships.
On their way to winning the title, the Crumpton Street school managed to capture two of the three sections.
In the Under-20 division, Harrison College finished on 49 out of 60 points from their six matches.
The team of Yu Tien Poon, Nitin Mahtani, Gabriella Cumberbatch, Paul Mordesur and Anush Pais dominated, with Poon and Mahtani winning all of their games.
Queen’s College took second place on 32 points, while St Leonard’s Boys were third with 22 points.
Harrison College also captured the Under-13 section in convincing style, finishing with 47 points, ahead of Queen’s College ‘A’ on 33, with Queen’s College ‘B’ in third.
Led by national Under-12 champion, candidate master Leigh Sandiford and 2016 Under-12 CARIFTA girls champion Azaria Johnson and ably supported by Yeshua Hill, Gaybrianna Moore and Dominic Jackman, the Kolij team pummelled all opposition into submission and won all of their six matches.
Despite their dominance, Harrison College were unable to claim the Under-15 division which Queen’s College won by a narrow two-point margin.
The Queen’s College team of Aaron Haynes, Azari Gittens, Tyson Holder, Shane Skinner and Kiarra Eversley could feel justifiably proud in preventing Harrison College from acquiring a clean sweep.
The tournament featured a high presence of girls on the teams of most of the schools participating.
“This has put paid to the notion that chess is a mainly male dominated and oriented sport and has been the highlight of the tournament so far,” said Barbados Chess Federation third vice-president Kelvin Daniel.
“For not only have they been just pushing their pieces, the girls have been competing tooth and nail with their male counterparts.” (PR/HG)
