Over the Easter weekend two playoffs to crown winners for the Barbados National Under 14 and 16 age category chess championships were played at the Harrison College school on Crumpton Street, Bridgetown.

Firstly, on Easter Saturday, Mileke Sinckler held the home advantage and duly delivered the Under 14 crown to himself and school as he battled through the four-player field to finish with two and a half points from a possible three to be clear first.  He was only held to a draw in the last round by Savion Little and by then no one could catch him as he had already defeated the two other players Aaron Jaikaran and Amari Blackett. Both Blackett and Jaikaran finished a point behind the winner.

On Easter Monday, it was Queen’s College’s Kanye Williams turn to strike glory as he battled through two bruising games to capture the Under 16 title. Firstly, he defeated Jaikaran, but then he had to play against the defending champion in Noah Clarke, who had also defeated in Jaikaran.

In a game full of missed opportunities, it was Williams who first had the advantage as under a withering kingside attack, he won Clarke’s queen for two minor pieces. But Clarke with a no surrender attitude, continued to play actively and Williams would lose another piece to put Clarke in the ascendency. He however, in an attempt to side step some mating threats by Williams, eventually lost his rook and would resign shortly after.

Playoffs were necessary in both age categories as the players had all come joint first in the initial phase of the championships.

While the juniors were doing their thing locally, two senior players were competing abroad. Locally based Englishman, Chris White campaigned in Martinique with some success  in the 11e Open International de Martinique – Memorial Joel Gratien to score 5 points from a possible 9 and finish in 19^th position from 65 players. The event was eventually won by French grandmaster Christian Bauer.

President of the Barbados Chess Federation Allan Herbert, played in the Canadian Championship Festival last week and finished in 32^nd place from 66 players. He was initially the 17^th ranked players and would have fancied himself with a better showing. The event was won by Hanuel Park of South Korea, ahead of Sarthak Deshpande of Canada, after both players scored 6 points from a possible 7.