Charles F. Broome Primary School ‘A’ team swept aside all the opponents it faced to emphatically win the 2024 Barbados Primary Interschool Team Chess Championship held at the Gymnasium of the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex earlier in the week.
Charles F. Broome finished on a perfect 25 game points to finish a commanding seven points ahead of the second-placed team, St Giles ‘A’. The Charles F. Broome ‘B’ team were third on 15 points, edging out St Giles ‘B’ and Beyond the Box Education.
Twenty registered teams from just over a dozen primary schools took part, with each team consisting of five players and up to two reserves. The event, which was played over two days, used a five-round format.
Unblemished record
The winning team comprised (in descending board order) Chaz Reifer-Belle, Nathan Simmons-Patterson, Janiyah Browne, Darren Toppin, Nathan Culpepper with Kymani Gayle as the reserve. They went through the two days with an unblemished record to make themselves and their school very proud.
It was always expected that Charles F. Broome ‘A’ would have been the favourites as they boast several age-category champions or national representatives such as Reifer-Belle, Browne and Gayle.
Board prize
However, their total domination was a credit to their erstwhile coach Corie Elcock.
The first five members of the team won the board prize, meaning that they scored 100 per cent from their respective games – a feat only repeated by two St George ‘C’ players, Shakeem Applewaithe and Joash Sealy, playing on boards four and five.
The St Giles ‘A’ team, comprising of Nyall Bushell, Aaron Tash, Kyi chai Straughan, Callum Foster and Donte Christian, finished a commendable second.
They won four of their five matches, suffering only one defeat at the hands of the eventual
winners. Tash, Straughan and Foster all won special prizes in their respective boards, meaning that they scored more the 67 per cent of the available maximum score.
The Charles F Broome ‘B’ team of Amelia Mottley, Nia Clarke, Daisha Rose-Parris, Liam Byer, Arielle Gittens and Akeli Grazette placed third to give their school more glory, but it was a closerun thing. They finished ahead on tie-break from St Giles ‘B’ and Beyond the Box Education, who also had 15 points, and only a half-point ahead of Sharon Primary and St George ‘C’.
It was the first Primary Interschool Team Chess Championship since the COVID pandemic and president of the Barbados Chess Federation Allan Herbert said he was pleased that more than 100 students took part.
The students received their prizes from National Sports Council director Neil Murrell, general manager of the Barbados Olympic Association Glyne Clarke and women’s candidate master and 2023 Central American and Caribbean Under-14 female bronze medal-winner Chanon Reifer-Belle, who competed in the 2019 event.
(PR)
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