Team Trinidad and Tobago place Second in Carifta Youth Chess Championships 2019 in Curacao

June 5, 2019June 5, 2019 admin9

Team TTO at Carifta Youth Chess Championships 2019 in Curacao. Kneeling on right, TTCA 3rd VP, Sadiqah Razark.

Team Trinidad and Tobago placed second out of 11 countries in the recently concluded Carifta Youth Chess Championships 2019 held in Curacao from April 19-22, 2019. The official categories of the Carifta Youth Chess Championships are Under 12, Under 16 an Under 20 Absolute and Female.

The overall winners were Jamaica with Suriname placing third.

In the official categories, Naparima College student FIDE Master Alan Safar, earned a Gold medal in the Under 16-Open Category, for the fourth year in a row, when he scored 6.5 out of 7 points. Last year’s Carifta Under 12 Female champion, St. Augustine Girls’ High School Form 1 student, Zara La Fleur earned second place in the higher Under 16 Female Category when she scored 5.5 out of 7 points. She also earned silver in the Under 14 Female Sub Category. Daenon Ramsumair, Naparima College student, earned silver in the Under 20 Open category as well as copped the silver medal in the Under 18 sub category with a score of 5 out of 7 points.

Trinidad and Tobago also earned the following sub-category prizes:

Sub category: Under 8 Absolute- 1^st place, Kyan Muradli
Sub Category: Under 8 Female- 1^st place, Charlise Mike
Sub Category: Under 10 Female- 3^rd place, Arya Maharaj
Sub Category: Under 12 Absolute- 3^rd place, Juninho La Fleur
Sub Category: Under 12 Female- 2^nd place, Cayleigh Manocha
Sub Category: Under 18 Female- 3^rd place, Amy Ali

The other members of the T&T contingent were:

Under 12

Aradhana Ramnarine Singh
Aryana Nanan
Ari Bunsee
Luke Balliram
Taydan Balliram
Tristan Balliram
Rayden Rampersad
Aidan Chaitram
Aaron Chaitram
Adrian Lutawan
Kael Samuel Bisnath
Javed Maharaj

Under 16

Anusha Saha
Keira Samuel Bisnath
Keshav Maharaj
Kiran Mohammed
Sanat Maharaj

The team manager for the 26 player contingent was TTCA 3^rd Vice President, Sadiqah Razark, a 2^nd year UWI student. Sadiqah was also selected to serve on the Appeals Committee during the event. Sadiqah was supported by accompanying parent, Mr. Larry Ramoutar. TTCA Secretary, Sandy Razark, also performed a great deal of the pre-trip preparations to ensure that the contingent was well informed about the logistics and the expectations of the T&T team and preserving the TTCA brand.

Carifta Official Category Medal winners:
From left, Daenon Ramsumair Silver-Under 20 Absolute; FM Alan-Safar Ramoutar, Gold-Under 16 Absolute; Sadiqah Razark, TTCA 3rd VP, holding T&T’s second place country trophy and Zara La Fleur, Silver-Under 16 Female.

TTCA President, Sonja Johnson was excited about the team’s performance, “I am so proud of the team. This is such good news for T&T chess. The players were focused and understood their roles and this led to a very solid team performance. I am also very happy with how Sadiqah conducted herself as team manager. Though some may have found it to be a bit risky having someone so young handle such a large contingent for the first time, we were confident that Sadiqah will successfully handle the challenge and she represented the TTCA quite well!”. Johnson was also very encouraged by the support of the many parents who accompanied their children to Curacao.

The support provided by FIDE also contributed to the assistance that the TTCA was able to afford to the official players. This assistance will also allow the TTCA, together with the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs and other partners, to deliver on its plans for 2019 which will also include further development of chess players as well as other chess officials.

Sonja Johnson
President
Trinidad and Tobago Chess Association
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