By Tamica Garnett
The two knights defence once again led to the most intriguing game to win the “Game of the Round” when it guided Raan Motilall in his victory against Anthony Drayton yesterday in the second round of the “Challenges of Youth Empowerment” chess tournament being played at the American University of Peace Studies.

Leading to an early checkmate against black on the previous day, yesterday it was black that mated. The game saw an early flurry of tactics, which suited Motilall’s aggressive style, and on move thirteen Anthony was smother mated (a form of mate performed by the knight).

Motilall followed in the steps of his brother Ron Motilall, who had utilized the defence on Wednesday to gain an astonishing win over opponent Farad Baksh, when he checkmated Baksh by the use of a mere nine moves.

Ron also grabbed his second victory yesterday, this time triumphing over Rashad Hussein. Hussein, playing white, gained space and central control playing the scotch game. However, in the middle game, he lost focus and while he attained the pawn he trapped his bishop. And after a solid defence, Motilall seized the initiative and converted a bishop and a rook against a rook and pawns, at the end game, into a win.

The Motilall brothers were joined in the victory arena by Baksh and Ryan McKay, while Shane Baksh won a point by default after his opponent forfeited by non-attendance.

After losing round one, Baksh, playing the black pieces rebounded tactically against opponent Niatanand Singh, Queen’s gambit. In a game that displayed forks and discovery attacks, Baksh captured his opponent’s pieces and drove Singh to resign on move 21.

Meanwhile, McKay applied an unorthodox style in his game against Sue-Hai Feng. McKay played b3 on move two and this seemed to work against Feng as McKay obtained the early advantage within the next ten moves. The game proceeded to move 72 with Feng applying a stubborn defence but surrendered to a deadly past pawn on the seventh rank.

Yassuf’s scheduled partner, Cecil Cox did not attend the round and has now officially opted out of the entire tournament as he is ill. Subsequently each player will be given a bye for a round and will automatically be allocated a point.

The battle continues today with round three and four. Round two is scheduled to take place from 11AM – 1PM and round four will follow from 4PM – 6PM, and the public is invited to attend.

Fixtures are as follows:

Round Three:

Ron Motilall vs Raan Motilall

Sue-Hai Feng vs Niatanand Singh

Farad Baksh vs Anthony Drayton

Ryan McKay vs Shane Yussuf

Round Four:

Ryan McKay vs Hussein

Niatanand Singh vs Shane Yussuf

Anthony Drayton vs Sue-Hai Feng

Raan Motilall vs Farad Baksh.