Checkmaters to honour Cecil Lee with chess tourney from Jan 20

Checkmaters Chess Club will get their activities started on the 2024 chess calendar with a three-weekend tournament which is set to begin at the UWI St Augustine student activity centre on January 20.

The tournament is being held in honour of TT chess great Cecil Lee, the club’s former president, who passed away last year. Lee was TT’s first chess master and also won three national titles.

Roughly 60 chess players will be involved in the tournament, including former national champion Mario Merritt and top female player Aditi Soondarsingh, who has also copped numerous national titles.

Last year, Naparima College won the National Secondary School chess tournament, with exceptional performances from students such as Kyan Muradali, Chandresh Prabhakar and Keagan Ragoobar.

Hillview College and Fatima College finished the tournament in second and third spots respectively.

St Augustine Girls High School’s Zara La Fleur and Vishnu Boys’ Hindu College student Sameer Bharath were the top individual players at the national school tournament.

La Fleur also showed her class by taking home the Knights Chess Club’s DeVerteuil Open in September.

La Fleur finished a commendable third in the women’s division at the National Chess Championships in August, with Obdulis Hermoso and Joshua Johnson walking away with the respective women’s and men’s titles.