Nine-year-olds Swaminadha and Sam top DeSinco National U-12 Chess Championships

THE nine-year-old pair of Aquilani Swaminadha and Kataleya Sam won the respective boys and girls titles at the DeSinco Limited National Under-12 Chess Championships that were staged at School of the Nations on January 28 last.

Twenty-Five players competed in seven rounds of play which were contested under a time control of 20 minutes per player, with five seconds added to the clock after each move.

Swaminadha took the Under-12 Open Championship title with 5.5 wins after he defeated his counterparts, Jacob McDonald, Joseph Prendergast, Javier Davenand, Julian Mohabir, and Arush Ramnarine.

His half-point came from a draw in the fifth round against 11-year-old Nicholas Zhang.

Swaminadha also won the prize for the Best Under-10 player.

Zhang went on to claim second place in the competition. While he scored the same points as the champion, he was ranked below Swaminadha due to the Buchholz tie-break system, which takes into account the scores of the opponents that a player has defeated.

The player with the highest total Buchholz score (the highest sum of the scores of the opponents that the player has defeated) is ranked higher.

In 3rd place for the Open category was Jacob McDonald on five points. Also on five points were