Queen’s College “A” team won the Under 20 section of the recently concluded Secondary Interschool chess championship held recently.

The formidable team led by three females who are past or current Women’s Olympiad team members inclusive of Hannah Wilson, Vanessa Greenidge and Chanon Reifer-Belle along with Louis Wilson and Kimahri Holder put in an excellent performance in winning all their 6 matches and scoring 59 points overall from a possible 60.

The team event is played with five players per team and each person scoring two points for a win and thus a total of 10 points for a match.

Four of the five members won all their games while Louis on board 2 allowed one draw against Azaria Johnson of Harrison College. It was during this round three match that Queens College would have faced their toughest test on paper as they faced archrival Harrison College who had a lineup that included Yeshua Hill, Azaria Johnson, Melvin Terence, Keon Lashley and Jaydn Gill. These players would all have had experience in playing for Barbados at Carifta level and should have provided a stiff examination for Queens.

However, Harrisons’ started the match on the wrong foot, when they could only field their first four boards as no board 5 was available. And like most things in life, when it starts to rain it pours. On board three, Vanessa Greenidge got a clear advantage out of the opening which she would eventually press home. Hill on board one succumbed to Hannah Wilson, Lashley went down to Reifer-Belle and the only person who would trouble the score was Kolij’s board 2 player Azaria Johnson who drew with Louis Wilson.

After this Queens racked up three more consecutive victories by the maximum score to come out convincing winners. Second was Harrisons College with 49 points, while Queens College “B” finished in third place with 36 points. Queens College “B” defeated Combermere “A” 10 – 0 with wins for Nicholas Maxwell, Andrew Greenidge, Jaydn Odle, Makalo Grant and Kyei Hope.

Some individual players outside of the two top teams did put in creditable performances. These include Combermere “A” board 1 Nathan Griffith, Queens College’s “B” team pair of Nicholas Maxwell and Makalo Grant who won four of their 6 games.