Alexander Duncan continued the tradition set by his family of playing strong chess to defeat favourite Learie Webster as the National Open Chess qualifiers got underway at the Hotel Tower yesterday morning.
In the first round of the seniors Open category Duncan, whose brothers Aggrey and Trevor are former national players, converted a pawn advantage to a piece and eventually a win as Webster resigned in the face of a strong attack on his king from two rooks backed up by two bishops.
In another tough first round encounter between two veterans, David Khan got the better of Roy Sharma.
Khan seemed to be heading for an easy win after being a piece up. But the wily Sharma launched a king side attack that nearly saw him snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.
But Khan held his nerve in the complicated end game which could easily have seen Sharma’s threat of a passed pawn
Another veteran Michael Perreira gave Errol Tiwari all he could handle and was up a pawn. But Tiwari, whose position was solid, was able to recapture the pawn and the game petered out into a draw.
At the end of the three contested rounds yesterday, three players, Loris Nathoo, Shiv Nandalall and David Khan were on the maximum three points. They are followed by Perreira on two and one half points.
Nine players, namely Dennis Dillon, Frankie Farley, Ronuel Greenidge, Omar Sharif, Irshad Mohammed, Arnold Phang, Hemraj Sanicharra, Sharma and Duncan are bunched together on two points while Tiwari follows on one and a half points.
If the first round belonged to Duncan, the third round was certainly Farley best round as he managed to upset Tiwari.
The father and son combination of David and Taffim Khan are leaving their personal mark on this tournament with Taffim Khan being among three junior players with the maximum three points after yesterday’s play.
The other players are Khalid Gajraj and Cecil Cox.
Seven players in Saeed Alli, Kana Khan, Rashard Hussain, Clive Bender, Adrian Allicock, Irshad Ishmael and the lone female Sherifa Alli.
The competition attracted 44 participants including last year’s junior champion Ronald Roberts who participated in the senior category and Shazeeda Rahim, the lone female player in the senior category.
Irshad Mohammed is the tournament director.